Thread by @MuricanVeteran

Ya'll ready to see me get banned? Today we're gonna learn how the NSA tracks you, what it does with the information it collects, and how PRISM works according to internal NSA power-point presentations. Yeah, I said "internal". BTW I love my life and I'd never hurt myself🤣🧵🧵

First we need to understand what meta data is. Meta data is data that describes data. I'll show you an example of this without even having to use any special software. Open windows explorer, click on a file to highlight it, then look in the bottom left corner.

That is one form of meta data. Unless you've disabled it, this is done on every picture you take. With special tools, I can tell you the exact GPS coordinates a picture was taken, what time of day it was, what phone took the picture, the serial number of the device, etc.

This isn't exclusive to pictures. When you use Pandora or Spotify, the name of the song, artist, lyrics, etc are all embedded as meta data. Compressed files like .Zip or .Rar also contain meta data. Even the lowly simple text file, has meta data.

The reason this matters is very simple. Metadata is usually VERY small. A picture could be 2MB from your phone, but the metadata would be 2kb. The NSA can download MILLIONS of metadata files much more quickly than it could focusing on individual files.

This is exactly what the NSA does. With Prism, they cast a WIDE net and download any and ALL metadata available to them. Seems like it should be illegal right? The 4th amendment is pretty clearly against this type of action, right?

Well no, it's not. According to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (before computers and cell phones were even a thing) the NSA can, in fact, carry these fishing expeditions out. Even the ACLU sees a problem with this.
aclu.org/issues/privacy…

All this metadata is then collected and aggregated on multiple servers. These servers have engines in them that sort the data into categories like Google does with the internet. It creates a searchable database for the NSA to search for specific keywords.

This might get me in trouble, but I'm gonna do it anyway. These are ACTUAL slides from a presentation on PRISM given by the NSA. I have updated ones but I'm not putting that out there as I'm sure it could out who I am.

These slides show what data they get and from where it comes. Again, these are older slides (2013 I think) so obviously the providers have changed. They are now Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. Then it shows what they can collect without a warrant.

As we can see from their own internal slides, they collect email, chat (video/voice/pics), stored data, VOIP, file transfers, and your social media posts. This is all found via metadata from the server search engine.

Once the metadata search locates the intended target, they can then focus in on that individual and get the actual files that metadata was attached too. They are using the metadata like a treasure map to your personal data.

This is why I say the NSA is most likely NOT tracking you. The reality is that the amount of data they collect is so massive that it's getting difficult for the search engine to decipher usable intel from garbage. Google enters the chat
justice.gov/opa/press-rele…

That's right, they brought Google to help streamline their search algorithm. Although today, the NSA could probably care less who you are, in the future, they will have files built on every single person living in the US. But why would Google help with this?

I'm glad you asked, Fren! Google was built on surveillance! Google gives you so much for "free". Google maps, Gmail, Google Drive, how can they afford to do this? What do I always say? If it's free you are the product. qz.com/1145669/google…

So when the NSA hit a roadblock, they brought in the masters of surveillance. Today, PRISM is much more streamlined and functional than it was in 2013. What's insane is that contractors like us or @Snowden STILL have access to it today.

The NSA was established in 1952 by President Truman. It was NOT done through Congress. ANY President could wipe it away like it never happened. Yet year after year, decade after decade, it remains. Spying on Americans. Violating your rights.

I hope you have a better understanding about what the NSA does and how metadata works. I could go on and on about this, but I'm worried I'll say something that could expose my identity. If you have questions, please leave a comment. Thanks for reading!
\o

People are asking how to remove this data from photos and files. Here's an app for Android that does it. This is for your computer play.google.com/store/apps/det…
github.com/exiftool/exift…