Fairview (surveillance program)


National Security Agency surveillance
Map of global NSA data collection as of 2007, with countries subject to the most data collection shown in red
Programs
Pre-1978
Since 1978
Since 1990
Since 1998
Since 2001
Since 2007
Databases, tools etc.
GCHQ collaboration
Legislation
Institutions
Lawsuits
Whistleblowers
Publication
Related
Concepts
Collaboration
United States
Five Eyes
Other

Fairview is a secret program under which the National Security Agency cooperates with the American telecommunications company AT&T in order to collect phone, internet and e-mail data mainly of foreign countries' citizens at major cable landing stations and switching stations inside the United States. The FAIRVIEW program started in 1985, one year after the Bell breakup.[1]

In 2010, the NSA had access to these AT&T facilities:[2]

Except for the VoIP facilities, most are along U.S. borders.

In 2011, NSA spent $188.9 million on the program, which was twice as much as on its second-largest program, STORMBREW.[1]

In 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA was harvesting the telephone metadata and text messages from over a billion subscribers in China; no precise program name was reported at the time.[3]

Several weeks later, Glenn Greenwald wrote in The Guardian about FAIRVIEW: "The NSA partners with a large US telecommunications company" that "partners with telecoms in the foreign countries, [which] then allow the US company access to those countries' telecommunications systems, and that access is then exploited to direct traffic to the NSA's repositories."[4]

Documents provided by Snowden said the NSA had collected 2.3 billion separate pieces of data from Brazilian users in January 2013.[5]

FAIRVIEW: Map shown on Brazilian television in 2013

In 2013, Brazilian television showed a map of FAIRVIEW with markers all over the United States, but without a legend that explained what they stood for.

AT&T was first identified as FAIRVIEW's "key corporate partner" in 2013, by the Washington Post, quoting NSA historian Matthew Aid.[6] This was confirmed in 2015 by a joint report by ProPublica and the New York Times, based upon NSA documents that describe the company as "highly collaborative" and praise the company's "extreme willingness to help".[7]

  1. ^ a b New York Times, AT&T Helped U.S. Spy on Internet on a Vast Scale & Pro Publica, NSA Spying Relies on AT&T’s ‘Extreme Willingness to Help’, August 15, 2015.
  2. ^ P/K, Geplaatst door. "FAIRVIEW: Collecting foreign intelligence inside the US". Retrieved October 13, 2023.
  3. ^ Lana Lam; Stephen Chen (June 22, 2013). "EXCLUSIVE: US spies on Chinese mobile phone companies, steals SMS data: Edward Snowden". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on March 23, 2014. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  4. ^ Glen Greenwald (July 7, 2013). "The NSA's mass and indiscriminate spying on Brazilians". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 7, 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-11.
  5. ^ Glenn Greenwald; Roberto Kaz; José Casado (July 6, 2013). "EUA espionaram milhões de e-mails e ligações de brasileiros". O Globo. Archived from the original on January 25, 2014. Retrieved 2014-03-23.
  6. ^ Emily Heil (October 22, 2013). "What's the deal with NSA's operation names?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 23, 2014. Retrieved 2014-03-23.
  7. ^ New York Times, AT&T Helped U.S. Spy on Internet on a Vast Scale & Pro Publica, NSA Spying Relies on AT&T’s ‘Extreme Willingness to Help’, August 15, 2015.