Wednesday, November 6, 2013

How U.S. Surveillance Has Changed Over The Years

Spy Shoes To Drones: How U.S. Surveillance Changed -- USA Today

Spies once used briefcase recorders, shoes and stump bugs to gather information. Now computer programs and drones are surveillance tools.

With decades of James Bond movies, The Americans on TV and countless video games and books, spying has embedded itself deep into our popular culture. What's more striking is how real life espionage continues to play out in the USA.

Criticism of the National Security Agency is increasing inside the U.S. intelligence community.

NSA leaker Edward Snowden, 30, who was granted asylum in Moscow in August after leaking highly classified government information, wroteTuesday that calls for changes in surveillance programs justify his decision to make the materials public.

In the wake of Snowden's disclosures, a report showed that the NSA eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone. Other examples of spying this year included the U.S. government ordering Verizon to give the NSA access to daily reports of telephone records of millions of Americans and the FBI director's acknowledgement that the bureau has used drones in a "very minimal way" for domestic surveillance.

Read more ....

My Comment: An excellent summary from the 1940s to the present time.

Update: Here is a cool infographic of the major spying/espionage incidents in the last ten years. The link is here.

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