​

The National Security Agency is harvesting huge numbers of images of people from communications that it intercepts through its global surveillance operations for use in sophisticated facial recognition programs, according to top-secret documents.

The spy agency’s reliance on facial recognition technology has grown significantly over the last four years as the agency has turned to new software to exploit the flood of images included in emails, text messages, social media, videoconferences and other communications, the N.S.A. documents reveal. Agency officials believe that technological advances could revolutionize the way that the N.S.A. finds intelligence targets around the world, the documents show. The agency’s ambitions for this highly sensitive ability and the scale of its effort have not previously been disclosed.

The agency intercepts “millions of images per day” — including about 55,000 “facial recognition quality images” — which translate into “tremendous untapped potential,” according to 2011 documents obtained from the former agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. While once focused on written and oral communications, the N.S.A. now considers facial images, fingerprints and other identifiers just as important to its mission of tracking suspected terrorists and other intelligence targets, the documents show.

​

“It’s not just the traditional communications we’re after: It’s taking a full-arsenal approach that digitally exploits the clues a target leaves behind in their regular activities on the net to compile biographic and biometric information” that can help “implement precision targeting,” noted a 2010 document.

One N.S.A. PowerPoint presentation from 2011, for example, displays several photographs of an unidentified man — sometimes bearded, other times clean-shaven — in different settings, along with more than two dozen data points about him. These include whether he was on the Transportation Security Administration no-fly list, his passport and visa status, known associates or suspected terrorist ties, and comments made about him by informants to American intelligence agencies.

It is not clear how many people around the world, and how many Americans, might have been caught up in the effort. Neither federal privacy laws nor the nation’s surveillance laws provide specific protections for facial images. Given the N.S.A.’s foreign intelligence mission, much of the imagery would involve people overseas whose data was scooped up through cable taps, Internet hubs and satellite transmissions.

Because the agency considers images a form of communications content, the N.S.A. would be required to get court approval for imagery of Americans collected through its surveillance programs, just as it must to read their emails or eavesdrop on their phone conversations, according to an N.S.A. spokeswoman. Cross-border communications in which an American might be emailing or texting an image to someone targeted by the agency overseas could be excepted.

Civil-liberties advocates and other critics are concerned that the power of the improving technology, used by government and industry, could erode privacy. “Facial recognition can be very invasive,” said Alessandro Acquisti, a researcher on facial recognition technology at Carnegie Mellon University. “There are still technical limitations on it, but the computational power keeps growing, and the databases keep growing, and the algorithms keep improving.”

State and local law enforcement agencies are relying on a wide range of databases of facial imagery, including driver’s licenses and Facebook, to identify suspects. The F.B.I. is developing what it calls its “next generation identification” project to combine its automated fingerprint identification system with facial imagery and other biometric data.

The State Department has what several outside experts say could be the largest facial imagery database in the federal government, storing hundreds of millions of photographs of American passport holders and foreign visa applicants. And the Department of Homeland Security is funding pilot projects at police departments around the country to match suspects against faces in a crowd.

The N.S.A., though, is unique in its ability to match images with huge troves of private communications.

“We would not be doing our job if we didn’t seek ways to continuously improve the precision of signals intelligence activities — aiming to counteract the efforts of valid foreign intelligence targets to disguise themselves or conceal plans to harm the United States and its allies,” said Vanee M. Vines, the agency spokeswoman.

She added that the N.S.A. did not have access to photographs in state databases of driver’s licenses or to passport photos of Americans, while declining to say whether the agency had access to the State Department database of photos of foreign visa applicants. She also declined to say whether the N.S.A. collected facial imagery of Americans from Facebook and other social media through means other than communications intercepts.

“The government and the private sector are both investing billions of dollars into face recognition” research and development, said Jennifer Lynch, a lawyer and expert on facial recognition and privacy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. “The government leads the way in developing huge face recognition databases, while the private sector leads in accurately identifying people under challenging conditions.”

Ms. Lynch said a handful of recent court decisions could lead to new constitutional protections for the privacy of sensitive face recognition data. But she added that the law was still unclear and that Washington was operating largely in a legal vacuum.

Laura Donohue, the director of the Center on National Security and the Law at Georgetown Law School, agreed. “There are very few limits on this,” she said.

Source: The New York Times

 

Everytime I read one of these articles (usually here, BTW) I can't stop but feeling sorry for the US citizens as their government is really full of shit.
They always pretend to have the utmost technology bla bla bla and still, they got their ass kicked everywhere they were involved recently... which is a relief, actually.

I had never took USA as a model and never believed in the american dream, but today is more true than ever.
But the people got all my sympathy, I would not want to be in their shoes for the times to come.

 

A drone is coming near you soon *yes*

But seriously, I'm curious to see where the Orwellian/police state will go. Can anyone think of a positive use for this? 'Cause I'm having a hard time...

 

The only ones that are free in America are the Freemasons.

As for this technology, I agree that it's total bullshit. However, One has to look at the true reason behind social media sites such as Facebook, It's clearly linked to the US Government.

 

here's my picture, enjoy NSA

 

Never been on Facebook, never will be.

Even my sons think I'm paranoid. Looks like I'm being proved correct.

 

It's not just Facebook, it's e-mails, it's video conferences, etc. And btw this isn't limited to America, the GHCQ has far greater capabilities and the NSA often turns to them for additional help. It's a freakshow is what it is.

 

Don't GCHQ spy on the US and NSA do the same to the UK so they avoid human right laws?

 

Oh what part might they be a tad concerned about, the part where our planet is a prison where the lunatics are running the place or the part where apparently everyone has completely and totally lost their fucking minds?

 

We will fight terrorists they say well i got news for you NSA terrorist are NOT so stupid that they take selfies or use facebook or other similar sites this brings back memrories from Nazi times Usa say they are the free world well to my mind they more like old Germany when Nazis rule or Communist dictator state like China Old Russia or Romenia

 

As a matter of fact...the OSS did their "biggest" job during and after the 2.WW. Missiles, B/C Weapons, Police Work, etc.
Many Nazi Pigs were "safed" from prosecution. MD torturing in KZ`S, countless Engineers, almost every "bright" Nazi Mind was aquired.
And how about Nagasaki & Hiroshima?
They got deeply "inspired" to say so, the CIA was born...For example: After the war german Intelligence was called "Operation Gehlen", this guy became the first "President" of BND.(Nazi "Major General" Reinhard Gehlen).

When the UK set up Video Surveillance in London they needed "efficient" software. Face Recognition in realtime over IP, of course german Software Developers were up front, too.
Nowadays you can wear a paper bag over your head and still being detected by the "full body movement patters".

Google said "No Face Recognition for Glass", but they "bought" PittPatt. Facebook just implemented these "features", suddenly there was a nice Smartphone App to check if somebody has a Facebook account..."start the camera"...

I`m tired of "Paranoid Lunatics" dictating the direction of our lives. In their obsession they force a total collapse.

 

Just want to say that this is not only affecting USA, This will be done over the World!

cheers

 

Its the same all over the western world.

the best way to deal with it is buy a bigger tub of vaseline and sewing kit