gg2
Op-ed: 25 Years of Mass Surveillance Is Enough
The gist
An op-ed argues 25 years of post-9/11 mass surveillance is enough and should be evaluated.
The piece questions whether the programs' costs and benefits were ever fully assessed.
How it unfolded
- 2001The Sept. 11 attacks led to a government-wide shift from targeted surveillance to mass surveillance techniques such as tapping the internet backbone and mass collection of telephone or internet metadata.
- 2013An internal NSA presentation was made public as part of Edward Snowden's disclosures, describing a government that can 'Collect it All,' 'Process it All,' 'Exploit it All,' 'Partner it All,' and 'Sniff it All.'
- recentlyFBI Director Kash Patel confirmed in congressional testimony that the agency is purchasing information on Americans from data brokers and intends to continue doing so.