What a Difference a Year Makes
One year ago, Edward Snowden's disclosures set in motion an intense debate about the proper limits of government surveillance. Since then, an agency that operated in the dark has been dragged into the light, revelation by revelation. Highlights from this remarkable year are listed below. Note that many important moments are missing – most notably dozens of groundbreaking news reports exposing the breadth of the NSA's surveillance of the world's communications. You can access all of the documents on which those reports were based in our searchable NSA Archive.
They Knew Our Secrets. One Year Later, We Know Theirs. »
June 5, 2013 – First Snowden disclosure published
The Guardian publishes the first of a series of disclosures exposing the NSA's mass surveillance programs. This first report reveals the existence of a FISA Court order requiring Verizon to hand over, "on an ongoing daily basis," information on all of the calls of all of its customers. It emerges that data from other phone companies is collected as well, and that the NSA is in essence collecting information on the calls of hundreds of millions of Americans.
June 6, 2013 – The NSA's PRISM program is revealed
The second NSA revelation is published in the Guardian and the Washington Post, revealing the existence of PRISM, a program that collects the contents of emails, text and video chats, photographs, and more. The information is received directly from internet companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook, and while the program is intended to target foreign suspects, it ensnares the communications of many Americans as well.
June 7, 2013 – Obama weighs in on NSA disclosures
Obama is asked to respond to reports in the Guardian and the Washington Post revealing the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records and online communications. "I welcome this debate," he said. "And I think it's healthy for our democracy. I think it's a sign of maturity, because probably five years ago, six years ago, we might not have been having this debate."
June 9, 2013 – Snowden is revealed as NSA whistleblower
The source of the leaks is revealed by the Guardian to be Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old employee of NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. In a 12-minute video interview from a Hong Kong hotel room, Snowden explains, "I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate, which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in . . . . My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."
June 11, 2013 – ACLU sues over phone-records program
The ACLU files ACLU v. Clapper, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the NSA's mass collection of Americans' phone records. The suit argues that the dragnet violates the right of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment as well as the First Amendment rights of free speech and association. In December 2013, a federal judge granted the government's motion to dismiss the suit. The ACLU appealed the ruling in January 2014.
July 24, 2013 – Close vote almost reins in the NSA
Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduce an amendment to strip funding from the NSA's phone-records program. It is defeated in a close vote, with 205 representatives in favor and 217 against. The narrow margin signals an unprecedented willingness on Congress' part to rein in the NSA in response to Snowden's disclosures.
August 8, 2013 – NSA searches Americans' international messages
The New York Times reveals that the NSA is "systematically searching" the contents of virtually every email that comes into or goes out of the United States. The searches – which take place without a warrant – are authorized under the FISA Amendments Act.
August 15, 2013 – NSA commits thousands of privacy violations for several years
The Washington Post publishes an internal NSA audit from 2012, which reveals that the agency violated the rules supposedly protecting Americans' privacy thousands of times since 2008. In one example, the NSA intercepted "a large number" of calls originating in Washington, D.C., because a programming error confused the D.C. area code, 202, with Egypt's international dialing code.
August 23, 2013 – NSA analysts spy on love interests
The Wall Street Journal reveals the existence of "LOVEINT," a term coined by NSA employees to describe the practice of spying on love interests. The NSA acknowledges the following month that at least 12 such incidents of improper eavesdropping were known by the agency to have occurred since 2003.
Sept. 5, 2013 – NSA undermines global encryption standards
The Guardian, New York Times, and Propublica publish coordinated articles revealing an NSA program called "Bullrun," which works to circumvent or degrade encryption to access communications believed to be secure. Through Bullrun, the NSA uses supercomputers to break codes, collaborates with tech companies to gain access to their products, and secretly introduces weaknesses into encryption standards used by developers worldwide.
Oct. 30, 2013 – NSA hacks into Google's and Yahoo's data centers overseas
The Washington Post publishes a report revealing that the NSA and GCHQ, its British counterpart, are secretly tapping into Google and Yahoo's internal networks to access information flowing between the companies' data centers around the world.
Nov. 26, 2013 – NSA monitors targets' porn habits
An article published in the Huffington Post reveals the NSA has been monitoring the pornography habits of targets – including those with no ties to actual criminality – in order to discredit them as hypocrites to their followers.
Dec. 16, 2013 – Federal judge rules against NSA
A federal judge terms the NSA's mass call-tracking program "almost Orwellian" and likely unconstitutional. "I have little doubt," he writes, "that the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware 'the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power,' would be aghast." The ruling comes in a suit, similar to ACLU v. Clapper, brought by activist Larry Klayman. The government appealed the ruling in January.
Dec. 2013-Jan. 2014 – Chorus of support for Snowden grows
The debate around Edward Snowden's actions intensifies after Rick Ledgett, the NSA official tasked with investigating the leaks, says he would consider discussing amnesty in exchange for securing the documents Snowden gave journalists. The next day, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero voices unequivocal support for Snowden, whom he calls a patriot. On New Year's Day, twin editorials in the New York Times and the Guardian come out in Snowden's defense. Members of Congress join the calls for amnesty or leniency, including Sens. Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders as well as Reps. Jim McGovern and Alan Grayson.
Jan. 17, 2014 – Obama delivers speech on NSA surveillance
President Obama delivers a landmark speech on NSA surveillance and the future of digital privacy. In the speech, he announces that he will order an end to the NSA's bulk collection of phone records, narrow the number of records relating to targets' communications (from three "hops" to two), and establish judicial oversight over the NSA's queries of its database. He does not address other forms of bulk collection, the NSA's subversion of encryption standards, or the failed intelligence oversight mechanisms.
Jan. 29, 2014 – ACLU joins challenge to FAA
The ACLU joins a challenge to the constitutionality of the FISA Amendments Act, the surveillance law that gives the NSA virtually unfettered access to Americans' international communications. The challenge was filed on behalf of Jamshid Muhtorov, the first criminal defendant to receive notice that he was surveilled under the FAA. The suit comes a year after the Supreme Court dismissed ACLU v. Clapper, a different ACLU challenge to the FAA, ruling the plaintiffs could not prove they had been surveilled.
March 10, 2014 – Snowden at SXSW
Edward Snowden makes his first live appearance, via videoconference, at the SXSW Interactive technology festival in Austin, Texas. He appears with ACLU Principal Technologist Chris Soghoian in a panel titled "A Virtual Conversation with Edward Snowden," moderated by Ben Wizner, the director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Program. The panel, which is attended by thousands of technology professionals at SXSW and live-streamed by the Texas Tribune, focuses on how the tech community can help protect internet users from government surveillance.
March 13, 2014 – ACLU asks U.N. to strengthen international right to privacy
During a United Nations review of the United States' human rights record, the ACLU submits a general comment to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, with a proposal for a new interpretation of Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 17 enshrines the international human right to privacy, protecting everyone from arbitrary or unlawful interferences with their "privacy, family, home or correspondence."
April 14, 2014 – NSA reporting wins Pulitzer
The Guardian and the Washington Post are awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service. The Pulitzer committee recognizes the Guardian for sparking "a debate about the relationship between the government and the public over issues of security and privacy," and the Washington Post for helping "the public understand how the disclosures fit into the larger framework of national security."
May 22, 2014 – USA FREEDOM Act passes House
The House of Representatives passes the USA FREEDOM Act in a 303-121 vote. The original bill, introduced in October 2013 by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), an author of the Patriot Act, would have ended bulk collection of Americans' phone records and significantly reined in other NSA excesses. However, the bill that ultimately passes the House is significantly watered down.