fbi

How much does the US government know about you? It's not a question easily answered. The US government operates the largest and most advanced spying, surveillance, and data collection programs on the planet. It's fabricated up of multiple law enforcement and intelligence agencies, some of which operate in cloak-and-dagger. The federal authorities, of course, consists more two dozen major agencies that perform regular record keeping for operational purposes, such as the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Social Security Administration.

Bated from official government entities, third parties often comply with government requests for information. These include big tech companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook, all of which were shown by Edward Snowden to have cooperated with the NSA's spying efforts. And while we're thinking well-nigh Edward Snowden, recall that he was a private contractor at the NSA at the time and non a authorities employee. Contractors and individual companies can collect data on behalf of the United states government likewise.

The amount and accurateness of information that the government varies from one person to the adjacent. Someone who spends a lot of time online, sharing on social media, creating accounts at different services, and/or communicating with friends and relatives overseas will leave a much more articulate trail of data than someone who shuns Facebook and takes proactive steps to protect their privacy. Government employees must undergo rigorous groundwork checks , while someone getting paid under the table at a local restaurant can fly nether the radar.

Attempting to encompass all the data that the U.s.a. government knows about any one person quickly becomes overwhelming and full of caveats. With all of this in mind, it's clear we demand to narrow downward our parameters. To that finish, we'll create three typical archetypes–Alice, Bob, and Chris–who fit the following profiles:

Alice is:

  • A naturalized denizen (immigrant)
  • Heart aged
  • A private sector employee
  • A frequent online shopper
  • A tenant in a rented flat
  • A higher graduate

Bob is:

  • A US citizen from birth
  • Elderly
  • Retired from the public sector
  • Not very computer-literate and doesn't spend much time online
  • A homeowner

Chris is:

  • A pocket-sized
  • A public school student
  • Active on social media
  • Applying for college
  • Doesn't have a job

To narrow our telescopic a bit farther, let's presume none of these three people has a criminal record. They are all US citizens, either from birth or naturalized. None of them take served in the armed services or police force enforcement. They do non collect welfare such as unemployment checks, food stamps, worker's bounty, or inability benefits. Finally, we'll but cover information that the government can legally collect without a court guild.

We'll categorize the types of information based on, in broad strokes, who originally collects it:

  • Non-constabulary enforcement government agencies – Mostly routine information that the government needs to operate and is not collected for intelligence or law enforcement purposes
  • Intelligence and constabulary enforcement agencies – Information swept up in government spying and surveillance programs
  • Non-authorities companies – Private companies, credit bureaus, public utilities, and other entities not operated by the regime just that cooperate with authorities requests for data

Info collected by not-intelligence agencies

Some information is required for the US government to finer operate and serve the public. This includes information that'south used collect taxes, dole out welfare, deliver post, describe boundaries for congressional and school districts, and assess social and economical trends and brand policy decisions.

taxes calculator

While we say this information is "routine", once it's all combined, one could really formulate a fairly intimate depiction of a person'due south life. The United states government likely knows the following near all three of our hypothetical characters:

  • Name
  • Social security number
  • Permanent address and/or identify of usual residence
  • Age, nativity date
  • Place of nascence
  • Prior identify of residence and elapsing of residence
  • Ethnicity
  • Marital status
  • Household composition (family members and how they're all related)

This information can exist nerveless through various means, including tax forms, the postal service, and census data.

The decennial census in item gathers a large corporeality of personal information. Individual information is kept private for 72 years; the latest census data available to the public is from 1940.

You might presume that intelligence and law enforcement agencies tin access Census records whenever they want, but remember again. The US Census Bureau is bound by Title 13 of the U.s.a. Code, guaranteeing confidentiality. The FBI and other regime entities do non take the legal right to admission this data. Then the United states government technically knows a lot most you through the Demography and IRS, but, on paper, that information is locked abroad and simply used in aggregate.

The IRS is a flake different. IRS.gov's page on disclosure laws notes, "pursuant to courtroom order, return information may be shared with police force enforcement agencies for investigation and prosecution of non-tax criminal laws." That means all the information in your tax return tin exist used past the FBI and other law enforcement agencies with a court order. The IRS really uses some of the same surveillance techniques equally national intelligence agencies, including deployment of Stingrays to spy on cell phones.

Chris doesn't take an income yet and thus doesn't need to file his ain taxes, only he is nigh to utilise to college and thus will fill out a FAFSA to apply for federal educatee assist. He'due south besides a public school student, and then it's reasonable to presume the regime knows the following about him:

  • Education level
  • What classes he takes
  • Where he goes to school
  • Parents' income from their jobs and investments
  • Parents' employment status

Alice holds down a full-fourth dimension job and files taxes every year. She also participates in the census equally required past constabulary. It's reasonable to presume the The states government would know the following data about her:

  • Employment status
  • Occupation and industry
  • Income
  • Identify of work
  • Education level
  • Student loan payment condition

Bob is retired and ain his own home. He earns a minor pension and collects social security. Medicare pays for the majority of his medical expenses. He's besides a bit of a philanthropist who regularly donates to charity. We can assume the regime collects the following information about him in a given year:

  • Income
  • Current medicare and social security benefits, and gauge of future benefits
  • Employment status
  • Donations claimed on tax forms
  • Education level
  • Previous occupation and manufacture
  • Medical history, medications
  • Doctor(s) and hospital visits
  • Holding tax and valuation info, including:
    • Value of home and land
    • How the property is used
    • Location
    • Size
    • Improvements and issues
    • Easements
    • Type of admission

While we're on the topic of social security, notation that a regulation that required the SSA to to disclose information about certain people with mental illness to the national gun background bank check system. That regulation was nixed by President Trump in February 2017 .

passport

All iii fictional characters could feasibly have a driver's license or passport. Driver's licenses are administered at the land level, but the data about drivers is presumably attainable past the federal government. These types of official photograph IDs comprise information like

  • Proper name
  • Home address
  • Nativity date
  • Photograph
  • Sex activity
  • Height
  • Weight
  • Heart color
  • Signature

And don't forget: a driver'due south license ways a driver's record as well, including a tape of whatever past infractions. Bob and Alice own their own vehicles, which are registered with the post-obit data:

  • Make
  • Model
  • Year
  • Previous owners
  • License plate number

Government-accessible info nerveless past private companies

In this section, we'll expect at information collected by private entities, some backed by the authorities and others wholly private. These include net service providers (ISPs), internet companies, utility companies and credit bureaus.

Info provided by ISPs and net companies

The FBI and NSA perform their fair share of online surveillance, to be certain. But in many cases they might not be immune to monitor who they want, when they want due to laws and regulations, particularly those about spying on U.s. citizens. In many cases, however, intelligence and law enforcement agencies don't even have to acquit their own surveillance. Information technology'due south much easier and more than efficient to simply use data that private companies already have.

comcast

The FBI might ask for information regarding a particular redditor, like Chris, such as the IP address from which they admission the site. The NSA might ask for the account names of anybody who typed in a particular search term in a certain menstruation of time, e.one thousand. Bob searching for information almost his hurting medication. The ATF could ask Amazon to set an alert every fourth dimension a customer purchases a specific book, such as if Alice buys a book about Islam. And the DEA could request your ISP hand over the browsing history of suspected drug dealers.

Internet companies earn revenue from the data they collect, so for many of them, more is better. How much they share with law enforcement without a court order depends on the company itself. Cheque the privacy policy and terms of service of your ISP or a website to see what types of data they collect, with whom they share it, and under what circumstances. Nearly major companies now state that they don't hand over client information without a court order. But when those court orders do come up in, they often come paired with a gag order. Some guarantee no such protection and volition cooperate with law enforcement, court club or no.

The information that websites and ISPs collect varies depending on the company and what yous practise online, but here's a list of possibilities:

  • Browsing history
  • Search queries
  • Device name and unique ID
  • IP address and location
  • Videos watched, songs listened to
  • Purchases
  • Downloads
  • Social media posts

In 2017, Congress repealed an Obama-era FCC rule that prevented ISPs from sharing browsing data with third parties like advertisers. With that rule out of the way, ISPs that control your access to the net are expected to start gathering more data than ever on their users. If yous don't desire to be tracked by your ISP, nosotros recommend signing up for a reputable VPN.

Library records and ebooks

48 states in the U.s.a. have laws that protect library records from snoopers, and two have legal directives that serve a like purpose. To access a person'south library records, a courtroom order is usually necessary.

library

That'south more protection than you'll notice on Amazon when buying an ebook. Amazon and other ebook sellers usually take privacy policies stating they also simply hand over reader'due south private information with a court order, only there's technically no law barring them from doing so. Furthermore, Amazon tin can keep much amend track of what yous're reading and how yous read on its Kindle devices and companion apps. Amazon can not simply see what you read, but what page yous're on, when you read, highlighted passages, and any notes you've scribbled into the ereader.

Only iv states accept laws near protecting e-reader data in libraries, so you're best checking out a concrete book from your local library for maximum privacy.

Credit reporting agencies

All three of our hypothetical characters accept credit reports maintained by 1 of the iii major US credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. Creditors and authorities agencies tin access your credit report for background checks and other purposes. Credit reporting agencies are overseen past the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

A credit written report contains the post-obit data:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Social Security number
  • Date of birth
  • Trade lines (credit accounts)
    • Bank and credit cards
    • Auto loans
    • Mortgages
    • Date you opened each account
    • Credit limit or loan amount
    • Business relationship remainder
    • Payment history
  • Credit inquiries
    • A list of everyone who accessed your credit report in the concluding 2 years, both voluntary and involuntary. The latter occurs when lender order your report to send pre-approved credit offers
  • Public records and collections – Information on the public record aggregated from courts and collection agencies, including:
    • Overdue debt
    • Bankruptcies
    • Foreclosures
    • Suits
    • Wage garnishment
    • Liens

Of course, a difficult lesson near keeping all of this information with just iii companies was learned the difficult way when Equifax was breached in 2017, leaking Social Security numbers and other details of more than 145 1000000 Americans.

Other fiscal info

Well-nigh targeted surveillance on finances requires a court order, but that'southward non always the example. Human Rights Watch explains :

"In investigations related to international terrorism or espionage, the FBI can also demand depository financial institution account statements and credit menu histories using a national security letter, which doesn't crave a judge's approving – and which oft comes served with a gag order."

For most of u.s., however, the authorities probably knows about accounts opened in your proper noun, just not necessarily their contents or spending records.

If you invest in the stock marketplace, then your investments are tracked by the Securities Exchange Commission and other official oversight bodies. Each land has its own blue sky law, which requires:

  • Registration of all securities offerings and sales
  • Stockbrokers
  • Brokerage firms

The laws are less clear when it comes to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. In late 2017, the IRS ordered the land's largest cryptocurrency commutation, Coinbase, to hand over information about all customers who made a transaction worth $20,000 or more than between 2013 and 2015. That information includes:

  • Names
  • Birth dates
  • Addresses
  • Tax IDs
  • Transaction logs
  • Account invoices

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are oft thought of as anonymous, but if you take an account with a major exchange, then that commutation most likely requires such identifying information—not to mention a credit carte or banking company account—to purchase cryptocurrencies with fiat currency. In add-on to the blockchain, which tracks transactions of all transactions on a cryptocurrency's network, following the paper trail is a simple matter.

Public utilities

Public utility companies, excluding telecommunications, require a minimum corporeality of information in order to deliver their services. Water, gas, and electricity companies can be private or public, but all companies classified equally utilities undergo heavy authorities regulation because they are allowed to operate regional monopolies on the condition they serve the public. Utility companies know more most a household as a whole rather than specific people. The information they collect normally consists of:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Telephone number
  • Payment information (bank account and/or credit carte du jour number)
  • Technical information nearly equipment on the residence necessary to deliver a service

The adoption of a smart grid that began during the Obama administration aim to allow consumers to use energy resource more efficiently. In particular, the rollout of smart meters allow holding owners to better monitor and control their consumption of electricity and gas. All the same, this also raises concerns about the flow of detailed information not only between customers and energy providers, but also between tenants and their landlords.

electricity meter

A public utility company that installs a smart meter at your household could, even without detailed knowledge of the appliances yous own, determine with reasonable certainty when y'all melt, shower, slumber, and leave the house, among other activities. According to a 2009 study published by the Colorado Public Utilities Committee stated the following:

"A remarkable number of electric appliances tin be identified past their load signatures, and with impressive accurateness. Researchers have all but mastered identification of the larger common household appliances such as water heaters, well pumps, furnace blowers, refrigerators, and air conditioners, with recognition accuracies approaching perfection. Ongoing piece of work focuses now on the myriad smaller electric devices effectually the home such every bit personal computers, light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation printers, and [unlike types of] low-cal bulbs."

The software algorithms and the smart meter hardware itself has likely gotten more advanced since then, then yous tin expect a commensurate increase in accurateness. In response to these concerns, a handful of states passed police force southward restricting how smart meter data can exist used and by whom. These include California, New York, Ohio, and Colorado.

Info nerveless by law enforcement and intelligence agencies

Mass surveillance and metadata

In 2013, Edward Snowden shocked the world when he revealed a series of mass surveillance programs used to intercept communications of both Americans and non-Americans. The NSA and FBI argue that they practice non record the contents of phone calls or emails without a court order and merely collected metadata nigh those calls.

The NSA, where Snowden worked as a contractor, collected data on millions of people's telephone records from AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon. Telephone call metadata includes:

  • Phone number of both parties making and receiving the call
  • How long the call lasted
  • When the call was made

Snowden said the NSA secretly gained direct access to servers at Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Yahoo, among other companies that participated in the PRISM programme. Those companies denied the allegations outright, saying they only hand over data on a case-by-case ground with a courtroom gild, and not in bulk.

cyber spying

However, The Guardian reported in 2013 that the Bush-league and Obama administrations collected electronic mail metadata on any communication between not-United states citizens or communications in which at least ane party is outside of the Us, fifty-fifty if they are an American citizen. The email metadata does non include the contents of emails, which, like phone calls, would crave a courtroom order. Email metadata includes:

  • The email addresses of the sender and receiver
  • A timestamp of when the electronic mail was sent
  • An IP address used past people sending emails from inside the Us
  • Location based on the IP address

In 2012, the Department of Homeland security revealed in a lawsuit that it monitored social networks like Facebook and Twitter by running searches for keywords for at to the lowest degree a year and a half. The information swept up in the surveillance includes the contents of social media posts and comments. Chris' Facebook and Twitter posts could be swept up in such surveillance.

In curt, the Usa government can legally obtain metadata almost calls, messages, and emails, but not their bodily contents. For that, a courtroom order is necessary, although the person existence investigated probably won't be notified in such an event.

About of these programs were conducted nether the Strange Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and/or the Patriot Human action. Those laws are officially restricted to spying on not-United states of america citizens, merely many Americans' communications get swept up by bulk interception programs. Alice, a naturalized US denizen who has family in another country, would likely have her communications with them closely monitored past US intelligence agencies.

Spying on the contents of electronic communication typically requires a courtroom social club. Regime agencies can and practise collect metadata most emails, text messages, and phone calls, but non their bodily content. The FBI or NSA can record the sender and receiver, time sent, call duration, and location of the correspondents without a warrant, only they'll need a court order to really listen in or read your messages.

Location

A abode and work address is far from the only way the government can track someone's location. Many of us now have at least one GPS-enabled device inside at all times, likely a telephone or vehicle with navigation capabilities. But GPS is a navigation system endemic past the US government and operated past the US Air Force.

gps navigation

The police hasn't kept up and isn't entirely clear on whether law enforcement tin can utilize GPS information to rails someone without a court order. A 2012 Supreme Court ruling states that constabulary enforcement cannot identify a GPS tracker on a suspect'southward vehicle without a warrant. However, that ruling doesn't accept into account cars and smartphones with GPS already congenital in. We can assume that the government can hone in and record someone's movements using a GPS indicate that they voluntarily broadcast into public airspace.

Even if Chris turns the GPS on his telephone off, his approximate location tin still be tracked by analyzing nearby wifi networks and cell towers that his phone pings whenever its in range. All internet-continued devices also have a unique IP accost that's assigned in accordance with a specific region.

The regime can admission the flight records of anyone who has flown to or from an airport in the United states.

Photos and videos taken from the air higher up your firm and from the street are legal, including satellite and drone imagery.

Wiretapping

Wiretaps always require court orders in the United states of america if neither political party has granted consent. However, if at least i political party has granted consent for law enforcement to tap their phone, the conversation may be monitored without the consent of the rest of the parties.

Wiretapping is a form of electronic eavesdropping that specifically applies to telephone conversations. The 1994 Digital Telephony human action makes digital communications, such as Skype and Facetime, accessible to law enforcement in the same way that traditional telephone calls are bachelor.

If you believe your phone has been tapped, you may ask the telephone company to check for you lot, usually costless of charge. However, if the wiretap is legal, you will not be notified.

Wiretaps are ordinarily limited to 30 days of monitoring, according to the court social club. They do not need to be fabricated public.

Telephone companies may listen to your calls when necessary for maintenance, inspection, quality assurance, and to protect confronting abuse. A phone company is not required to decrypt encrypted communications unless information technology provided the encryption service itself.

Biometric information

More advanced surveillance focuses on information that tin can identify a person'due south concrete characteristics. Biometric analysis can be used to place people based on a photograph, fingerprint, or even a retina browse.

fingerprint

If y'all accept a passport, driver's license, or any other government-issued photo ID, then you can be identified by the FBI using facial recognition. In 2017, The Guardian reported well-nigh half of developed Americans' photographs are stored in databases attainable to the FBI. Well-nigh 80 per centum of them are non-criminal entries.

The NSA, meanwhile, intercepts tens of thousands of images per day of people's faces. Those images are swept upwardly by bulk surveillance programs that collect the images from emails, messages, social media, video conferences, and other communications, according to a 2014 New York Times report .

Avant-garde security cameras can be placed in transportation hubs similar airports and train stations in order to spot and track specific people. As with other forms of bulk surveillance in the United states of america, government agencies are limited to intercepting communications with foreigners or US citizens living and traveling overseas. Domestic communications between American citizens within United states borders are legally off limits.

Firearms

handgun firearm

The Firearm Owners Protection Deed prohibits the US government from creating a national gun registry that keeps track of who owns what firearms. Notwithstanding, the ATF does proceed some gun-related databases. These include:

  • Sales reports of specific firewarms with owner'south name and accost
  • Guns suspected to be used for criminal purposes but not recovered by law enforcement
  • Traced gun records that include the retail purchaser and seller. These include registration records from out-of-business gun stores that incude proper noun, address, make, model, serial number, and quotient
  • Guns reported as stolen to the ATF

Bargaining fries

The information historic period hasn't actually changed the types of information that government wants to get its hands on. It just created more vectors for government agencies to get that information, and the amount of information has increased to an exponential degree.

Recollect that we've but outlined information that tin can be accessed without a court order. As yous can see, all that info could exist coalesced to form a reasonably accurate contour of a Us citizen and their beliefs. In her article, "A picture of you, in federal data," Politico 's Nancy Scola writes:

"Even if the blended information doesn't contain a name or Social Security number, the image that comes into focus tin can quickly exist and then specific to plausibly belong to only one person, or a handful of people."

Merely before y'all start wheezing into a paper purse, know that Big Blood brother isn't every bit smart as he likes people to think. At least, not all the same. All of this information is not function of i giant spreadsheet containing every American denizen. It's messy, fractured, and jealously horded. In 2011, political scientist Alon Peled wrote almost a meridian-downwards guild by President Barack Obama to open up up federal data caches to the public. The order floundered because, Peled said,

"Datasets are valuable assets which agencies labor difficult to create, and use as bargaining chips in interagency trade, and are therefore reluctant to give up these prized information assets for gratuitous."

So the US government does know a lot about Alice, Bob, and Chris, but it hasn't figured out a way to efficiently manage and utilize that information in cooperation with other agencies. At least, not for at present. A single inter-agency searchable database could be a reality in the future.

In 1974, Senator Sam Ervin warned future Americans about surveillance overreach:

"When [the] quite natural tendency of authorities to acquire and keep and share data about citizens is enhanced by computer technology and when it is subjected to the unrestrained motives of countless political administrators," he said. "The resulting threat to individual privacy makes information technology necessary for Congress to reaffirm the principle of limited, responsive regime on behalf of freedom."

Something I missed? Let me know almost all my glaring omissions in the comments!

Image credit:FBI, Dave Newman, CC By two.0