The Role of Business Intelligence in NSA Surveillance Programs

Last Updated January 15, 2020

Human beings today exist in ethereal states. Your name, address, occupation, purchases and favorite television shows are floating through the atmosphere, logged somewhere on the internet, and they have never been easier to track than right now. It’s a scary thought, because that level of accessibility makes everyone more vulnerable. But to the National Security Agency (NSA) and the United States government, that data presents an opportunity to prevent crimes and protect citizens.

This advanced surveillance is driven by business intelligence: using data and patterns to make insightful and meaningful decisions. The NSA gathers multitudes of data about the American population, and its goal is to use those findings to keep the country safe from internal and external threats.

Some Americans, however, aren’t totally in support of advanced surveillance, according to research by the Pew Research Center. There’s no consensus among the public, and a measurable sector remains concerned about the lengths that the government may go, and the rights that may be violated to keep the country safe from harm.

Business Intelligence in Government Surveillance

Humans generate a lot of data. A recent study by IBM showed that we create more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. That’s more than two billion gigabytes over a 24-hour period, or the equivalent of downloading every single one of the approximately 35 million songs on iTunes 20 times.

That data is made up of photographs, emails, purchase history, text messages and more. By using business intelligence, the NSA can search for and find patterns in previously tagged data, which allows the agency to make intelligent predictions about peoples’ intentions.

Data Tagging

To identify connections or patterns through the process of data mining, metadata tags must be present. Metadata is data about data, and the label given to a specific piece of data is called a tag. When data mining, tagging data should be the first step. Without tagged data, analysts are unable to classify and organize the information so it can be processed and searched.

Tagging data also allows analysts to evaluate the information without examining the contents. This is an important point regarding the legality of data mining by the NSA, since a warrant is required to investigate the communications of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent resident aliens. However, metadata on a tag is not protected as such so analysts are able to use it to identify suspicious behavior.

Identifying Patterns

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), a data analysis firm, roughly 3% of the information that exists in the digital world is given a tag when it is created. This makes it necessary for the NSA to have a software program that puts billions of metadata markers on the information it collects. These tags serve as the foundation for any system that makes links among different kinds of data, such as video, phone records and documents.

For example, this data mining process would call attention to an individual who searches for bomb-building guides online, subscribes to terrorist propaganda and invests in explosives. That person would then be labeled as a potential risk.

But the examples aren’t always so straightforward. Even with business intelligence helping to piece together patterns and tendencies that would’ve gone previously unnoticed, the process isn’t as simple as it sounds.

Exposed Government Surveillance Programs

Two of the government’s major surveillance programs have already been exposed by former NSA employee Edward Snowden. It all began when Snowden released information about how the U.S. government was collecting phone records of every Verizon Wireless customer, which included millions of Americans. Shortly after that, two other government surveillance programs known as SKYNET and PRISM were uncovered.

• SKYNET – The NSA-created program called SKYNET monitored the location and communication patterns of people of interest by collecting mobile network metadata and bulk call records, according to an article from The Intercept. The government deployed SKYNET on a journalist named Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, whom they (incorrectly) suspected was a courier, and through his mobile phone usage, the program labeled him a terrorist. However, this was done without any other significant evidence. Zaidan denied the accusations and strongly criticized the invasive surveillance methods used to label him as a terrorist.

• PRISM – Established in 2007, the PRISM program was a cache of file transfers, emails, videos and other data collected from internet companies across the United States. U.S. officials claimed the program helped them catch Khalid Ouazzani, a naturalized U.S. citizen who the FBI suspected was an extremist and was planning to blow up the New York Stock Exchange. This example may be evidence that PRISM has foiled at least one terrorist plot, but at what cost?

The Cons of Mass Surveillance

The cost of American privacy is the most obvious tradeoff of surveillance programs fueled by business intelligence, but it doesn’t end there.

The NSA is, very likely, spending billions per year on monitoring the public. Economically speaking, the government’s surveillance efforts are sabotaging consumer relationships with popular brands like Verizon and Yahoo.

Furthermore, the surveillance supports the decay of internet-based securities. The NSA is collaborating with American manufacturers to design their products with features and mechanisms that make them easier to manipulate and employ as spying tools.

Business intelligence, combined with these fervent observational tactics, help keep Americans safe from threats. But, in turn, some may contend that they rob citizens of their trust and businesses of their credibility.

Is it worth it?

The country has yet to decide.