Taxonomy of the Snowden Disclosures

Table of ContentsI. Introduction 1680II. "Collect It All": Collection Programs 1689III. "Process It All": Processing Programs 1695IV. "Exploit It All": Attack Programs 1697V. "Sniff It All": Isolation Programs 1699VI. "Partner It All" and "Know It All": Database Programsl700VII. Conclusion 1703Appendix: The Snowden Disclosures [from June 2013 to January 2015] 1707I. IntroductionThis brief Essay offers a proposed taxonomy of the Snowden disclosures1 to help situate these programs within the theory of the "National Surveillance State."2 An informed discussion on the legality and constitutionality of the emerging cybersurveillance3 and mass dataveillance4 programs revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden necessitates the furtherance of cybersurveillance aptitude. Specifically, a technological grounding of these emerging surveillance methods is needed to assess reasonableness in the Fourth Amendment analysis5 and to assess efficacy and legality under various statutory provisions guiding restrictions on intelligence gathering activities.6Jack Balkin and Sanford Levinson define the National Surveillance State as being "characterized by a significant increase in government investments in technology and government bureaucracies devoted to promoting domestic security and (as its name implies) gathering intelligence and surveillance using all of the devices that the digital revolution allows."7 The National Surveillance State, like the administrative state, is largely bureaucratized.8 Thus, through bureaucratized decision making that may bypass traditional constitutional protections,9 the National Surveillance State harnesses the technologies of big data10 and the Information Society, and integrates surveillance into day-to-day governance activities.11 This governance is often justified by ex ante and pre-crime objectives-for example, the need to prevent perceived criminal and terroristic threats.12Balkin and Levinson have identified the National Surveillance State as an important concern of American constitutionalism that uniquely impacts core democratic principles.13 Similarly, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras-who enjoy sole possession of the full Snowden archives14- explain that the Snowden disclosures profoundly implicate questions of democratic governance.15 It is within this much larger frame of discussion that the importance of the Snowden disclosures can be better understood and appreciated.16 However, this appreciation is inadequate so long as the Snowden disclosures are referred to in the abstract.17From June 5, 2013, until the present,18 hundreds of formerly covert programs have been revealed to the public through the disclosures of National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden.19 As the disclosures continue to be revealed by various news organizations, the full scope of the revelations is, as of yet, still unknown.20 To help grapple with the specific contours of the technological, scientific, theoretical, and policy developments that animate the National Surveillance State, this Essay offers an Appendix of several hundred of the programs that now comprise what we refer to collectively and abstractly in the public discourse as "the Snowden disclosures" or "the Snowden revelations."21As part of the Symposium, Cybersurveillance in the Post-Snowden Age, this taxonomical effort relies exclusively upon publicly available sources. The public has been granted access to more classified documents relating to covert intelligence activities than ever before by virtue of the Snowden disclosures, media and investigative reports, and national security revelations through other intelligence sources. Nonetheless, this piece and proposed taxonomy might be considered best as a thought experiment, as cybersurveillance research is necessarily constrained in its conclusions and restricted to the information available, which is, of course, incomplete due the covert nature of the programs. …