Mass Surveillance

Kiriakou has voiced alarm about the pace of mass surveillance, describing it as accelerating alongside the growth of artificial intelligence and data centers, including under the Trump administration. ^[1] He says the NSA no longer makes any pretext of preserving Americans’ civil liberties — the tension he frames elsewhere as national security vs. civil liberties — even though its founding charter bars it from spying on Americans. ^[2] According to Kiriakou, the agency intercepts every phone call, text message, and email, along with metadata on all Americans, and warehouses the data in a facility in the Utah desert and elsewhere, without needing court orders or warrants. ^{[2] [3]} He says the FBI now bypasses warrants entirely by simply calling the NSA and asking for data on a target, and that the same practice extends to private companies. ^[3] Kiriakou says that in his own case, investigators used a national security letter rather than a court warrant to obtain his information from his internet service provider, and that Apple complied by turning over everything it had. ^[4]

See also

• John Kiriakou
• Edward Snowden
• NSA
• Section 702
• Data Privacy
• Ai Surveillance
• Whistleblowers
• Leonie Brinkema