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The Intercept: What It’s Like to Read the NSA’s Newspaper for Spies

One of the cultural revelations in the archives of SIDtoday is the corporate language that was routinely used. Intelligence reports delivered to other government agencies were described as “products,” and there was a category called the “Counterterrorism Product Line.” Government agencies that received these reports were known as “customers,” and the NSA has an entire division called the “Customer Relationship Directorate.”

The Intercept | Snowden Archive—the SIDtoday Files

The SIDtoday Files is where The Intercept will be releasing articles from SIDtoday, an internal publication of the National Security Agency. The articles are written in accessible, non-technical language and offer a window into the NSA’s culture and operations. They originate from within the Signals Intelligence Directorate, or SID, the NSA’s core spying division, and were provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

XKEYSCORE: NSA’s Google for the world’s private communications

From the article: The NSA’s XKEYSCORE program, first revealed by The Guardian, sweeps up countless people’s Internet searches, emails, documents, usernames and passwords, and other private communications. XKEYSCORE is fed a constant flow of Internet traffic from fiber optic cables that make up the backbone of the world’s communication network, among other sources, for processing.

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