This is the timeline of the global surveillance disclosures that began in 2013. The disclosures have been largely instigated by revelations from Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor.
2012
In April 2012, Defense contractor Edward Snowden began downloading sensitive Western intelligence material while working for the American computer corporation Dell.Mark Hosenball (August 15, 2013), Snowden downloaded NSA secrets while working for Dell, sources say Reuters By the end of the year, Snowden had made his first contact with journalist Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian.Peter Maass (August 18, 2013), "How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets" The New York Times
January–May 2013
In January 2013, Snowden contacted documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. In March 2013, Snowden took up a new job at Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii, specifically to gain access to additional top-secret documents that could be leaked. In April 2013, Poitras asked Greenwald to meet her in New York City. In May 2013, Snowden was permitted temporary leave from his position at the NSA in Hawaii, on the pretext of receiving treatment for epilepsy. Towards the end of May, Snowden flew to Hong Kong.
June 2013 After the U.S.-based editor of The Guardian held several meetings in New York City, it was decided that Greenwald, Poitras, and The Guardians defence and intelligence correspondent Ewen MacAskill would fly to Hong Kong to meet Snowden. On June 5, in the first media report based on the leaked material,Everything We Learned From Edward Snowden in 2013 - NationalJournal.com The Guardian exposed a top secret court order showing that the NSA had collected phone records from over 120 million Verizon subscribers. Under the order, the numbers of both parties on a call, as well as the location data, unique identifiers, time of call, and duration of call were handed over to the FBI, which turned over the records to the NSA. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Verizon order is part of a controversial data program, which seeks to stockpile records on all calls made in the U.S., but doesn't collect information directly from T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, in part because of their foreign ownership ties.
On June 7, 2013, the second media disclosure, the revelation of the PRISM surveillance program, was published simultaneously by The Guardian and The Washington Post.
Documents provided by Snowden to Der Spiegel revealed how the NSA spied on various diplomatic missions of the European Union (EU) including the EU's delegation to the United States in Washington D.C., the EU's delegation to the United Nations in New York, and the Council of the European Union in Brussels, as well as the United Nations Headquarters in New York. During specific episodes within a four-year period, the NSA hacked several Chinese mobile phone companies,EXCLUSIVE: US hacks Chinese mobile phone companies, South China Morning Post the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Tsinghua University in Beijing,NSA targeted China's Tsinghua University in hacking attacks, South China Morning Post and the Asian fiber-optic network operator Pacnet.Lam, Lana (June 23, 2013). "US hacked Pacnet, Asia Pacific fibre-optic network operator, in 2009". South China Morning Post (Hong Kong). Retrieved June 25, 2013. Only Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK are explicitly exempted from NSA attacks, whose main target in the EU is Germany. A method of bugging encrypted fax machines used at an EU embassy is codenamed Dropmire.
During the 2009 G-20 London summit, the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) intercepted the communications of foreign diplomats. In addition, the GCHQ has been intercepting and storing mass quantities of fiber-optic traffic via Tempora. Two principal components of Tempora are called "Mastering the Internet" (MTI) and "Global Telecoms Exploitation". The data is preserved for three days while metadata is kept for thirty days. Data collected by the GCHQ under Tempora is shared with the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States.
From 2001 to 2011, the NSA collected vast amounts of metadata records detailing the email and internet usage of Americans via Stellar Wind, which was later terminated due to operational and resource constraints. It was subsequently replaced by newer surveillance programs such as ShellTrumpet, which "processed its one trillionth metadata record" by the end of December 2012.
According to the Boundless Informant, over 97 billion pieces of intelligence were collected over a 30-day period ending in March 2013. Out of all 97 billion sets of information, about 3 billion data sets originated from U.S. computer networks and around 500 million metadata records were collected from German networks.
Several weeks later, it was revealed that the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) of Germany transfers massive amounts of metadata records to the NSA.
July 2013 According to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, the NSA spied on millions of emails and calls of Brazilian citizens,EUA espionaram milhões de e-mails e ligações de brasileiros, O Globo, July 6, 2013. Retrieved July 8, 2013.The NSA's mass and indiscriminate spying on Brazilians, Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian, July 7, 2013. Retrieved July 8, 2013. while Australia and New Zealand have been involved in the joint operation of the NSA's global analytical system XKeyscore.EUA expandem o aparato de vigilância continuamente, O Globo, July 6, 2013. Retrieved July 8, 2013. Among the numerous allied facilities contributing to XKeyscore are four installations in Australia and one in New Zealand:
Pine Gap near Alice Springs, Australia, which is partly operated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) The Shoal Bay Receiving Station near Darwin, Australia, is operated by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) The Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station near Geraldton, Australia, is operated by the ASD HMAS Harman outside Canberra, Australia, is operated by the ASD Waihopai Station near Blenheim, New Zealand, is operated by New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB)
O Globo released an NSA document titled "Primary FORNSAT Collection Operations", which revealed the specific locations and codenames of the FORNSAT intercept stations in 2002.
According to Edward Snowden, the NSA has established secret intelligence partnerships with many Western governments. The Foreign Affairs Directorate (FAD) of the NSA is responsible for these partnerships, which, according to Snowden, are organized such that foreign governments can "insulate their political leaders" from public outrage in the event that these global surveillance partnerships are leaked.
In an interview published by Der Spiegel, Snowden accused the NSA of being "in bed together with the Germans". The NSA granted the German intelligence agencies BND (foreign intelligence) and BfV (domestic intelligence) access to its controversial XKeyscore system.'Prolific Partner': German Intelligence Used NSA Spy Program, Der Spiegel. Retrieved July 21, 2013. In return, the BND turned over copies of two systems named Mira4 and Veras, reported to exceed the NSA's SIGINT capabilities in certain areas. Every day, massive amounts of metadata records are collected by the BND and transferred to the NSA via the Bad Aibling Station near Munich, Germany. In December 2012 alone, the BND handed over 500 million metadata records to the NSA.
In a document dated January 2013, the NSA acknowledged the efforts of the BND to undermine privacy laws:
According to an NSA document dated April 2013, Germany has now become the NSA's "most prolific partner". Under a section of a separate document leaked by Snowden titled "Success Stories", the NSA acknowledged the efforts of the German government to expand the BND's international data sharing with partners:
In addition, the German government was well aware of the PRISM surveillance program long before Edward Snowden made details public. According to Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert, there are two separate PRISM programs - one is used by the NSA and the other is used by NATO forces in Afghanistan. Both surveillance programs are "not identical".
The Guardian revealed further details of the NSA's XKeyscore tool, which allows government analysts to search through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals without prior authorization.Greenwald, Glenn (July 31, 2013)."XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'". The Guardian. Retrieved August 1, 2013. Microsoft "developed a surveillance capability to deal" with the interception of encrypted chats on Outlook.com, within five months after the service went into testing. NSA had access to Outlook.com emails because “Prism collects this data prior to encryption.”
In addition, Microsoft worked with the FBI to enable the NSA to gain access to its cloud storage service SkyDrive. An internal NSA document dating from 3 August 2012 described the PRISM surveillance program as a "team sport".
Even if there is no reason to suspect U.S. citizens of wrongdoing, the CIA's National Counterterrorism Center is allowed to examine federal government files for possible criminal behavior. Previously the NTC was barred to do so, unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an investigation.
Snowden also confirmed that Stuxnet was cooperatively developed by the United States and Israel. In a report unrelated to Edward Snowden, the French newspaper Le Monde revealed that France's DGSE was also undertaking mass surveillance, which it described as "illegal and outside any serious control".Révélations sur le Big Brother français (2), Le Monde, July 4, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.France 'runs vast electronic spying operation using NSA-style methods', The Guardian, July 4, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
August 2013 Documents leaked by Edward Snowden that were seen by Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and Norddeutscher Rundfunk revealed that several telecom operators have played a key role in helping the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) tap into worldwide fiber-optic communications. The telecom operators are: Verizon Business (codenamed "Dacron") British Telecommunications (codenamed "Remedy") Vodafone Cable (codenamed "Gerontic") Global Crossing (codenamed "Pinnage") Level 3 (codenamed "Little") Viatel (codenamed "Vitreous") Interoute (codenamed "Streetcar")
Each of them were assigned a particular area of the international fiber-optic network for which they were individually responsible. The following networks have been infiltrated by the GCHQ: TAT-14 (Europe-USA), Atlantic Crossing 1 (Europe-USA), Circe South (France-UK), Circe North (The Netherlands-UK), Flag Atlantic-1, Flag Europa-Asia, SEA-ME-WE 3 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe), SEA-ME-WE 4 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe), Solas (Ireland-UK), UK-France 3, UK-Netherlands 14, ULYSSES (Europe-UK), Yellow (UK-USA) and Pan European Crossing.
Telecommunication companies who participated were "forced" to do so and had "no choice in the matter". Some of the companies were subsequently paid by GCHQ for their participation in the infiltration of the cables. According to the SZ the GCHQ has access to the majority of internet and telephone communications flowing throughout Europe, can listen to phone calls, read emails and text messages, see which websites internet users from all around the world are visiting. It can also retain and analyse nearly the entire European internet traffic.