The Washington Post has a long story in front of the headlines

December 5, the U.S. "Washington Post" in the front page of a long report, said the top secret documents and interviews with U.S. intelligence officials released by former U.S. National Security Agency employee Snowden revealed that the agency collects nearly 5 billion mobile phone records around the world and tracks its location and activities to detect suspicious intelligence. "Target people" activity routes, related actions and social networks.

On the same day, the New York Times and other media also reported that the United States intelligence agencies to the suspect's telephone interception to grasp the information is not news, but the collection of such a large number of foreign information is quite incredible.

According to reports, in order to search for the whereabouts of terrorists from a large amount of information and threats to U.S. national security terrorist Action Plan, the United States safety Agency through fiber-optic cable, mobile phone and cellular network between automatic connection, wireless internet signal, mobile phone in the Global Positioning system and other channels for eavesdropping. Through the "metadata" system in its global network, it is possible to identify the sender and receiver of mobile phone calls, text messages, and their geographical location. Through a project called "Common Travel Analysis", the United States Security Bureau in the collection of "target" related information records on the basis of known "target people" activities to find its unknown social contact, and in a large amount of information within one hour to get "target" activity time, place and other complete information. Those who have contacted the "target" will likely become the new "target" of the NSA.

U.S. officials argue that this massive surveillance is legal and not targeted at the domestic population, but the fact is that the eavesdroppers include many Americans who travel abroad. In October this year, U.S. media reported that the U.S. Security Bureau in 2010 and 2011 conducted a large-scale collection of mobile phone locations in the United States pilot project. U.S. National Intelligence Director Clapper said in response that the United States did the pilot project, but never put into use. According to the U.S. Patriot Act No. 215, U.S. intelligence agencies are not allowed to collect information about domestic mobile phones and should be collected by the relevant telephone companies, he said.

The American Civil rights group issued a statement expressing concern about the massive collection of mobile phone records by the United States Security Council, and expressed unease about the whereabouts of so many Americans being tracked by the government. "In this case, the only way to protect privacy is to cut off all modern means of communication and live in a cave," said Chris Sogne, chief technology officer of the American Civil Liberties Union. ”

In the face of this new development, many American companies are quickly "distancing themselves" from the government. Microsoft announced late 4th that it would encrypt all communications and other services through Microsoft to ensure that its users ' personal information at home and abroad was not stolen by the government. Brad, general counsel for Microsoft, said the move was aimed at "we want to ensure that the government obtains user data through legal process rather than brute force". We want this country to live under the guidance of the Constitution. Earlier, a number of US companies had scrambled to say they would take steps to protect user information.