08/25/2014

Ryan Gallagher/TheIntercept:

The National Security Agency is secretly providing data to nearly two dozen U.S. government agencies with a "Google-like" search engine built to share more than 850 billion records about phone calls, emails, cellphone locations, and internet chats, according to classified documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents provide the first definitive evidence that the NSA has for years made massive amounts of surveillance data directly accessible to domestic law enforcement agencies.

ICREACH has been accessible to more than 1,000 analysts at 23 U.S. government agencies that perform intelligence work. A planning document (above) from 2007 lists the DEA, FBI, Central Intelligence Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency as core members.

ICREACH contains information on the private communications of foreigners and, it appears, millions of records on American citizens who have not been accused of any wrongdoing. Information shared through ICREACH can be used to track people's movements, map out their networks of associates, help predict future actions, and potentially reveal religious affiliations or political beliefs.

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