FASCIA (database)

National Security Agency surveillance
Map of global NSA data collection
Programs Pre-1978 ECHELON MINARET SHAMROCK PROMIS Since 1978 Upstream collection BLARNEY FAIRVIEW Main Core ThinThread Since 2001 OAKSTAR STORMBREW Trailblazer Project Turbulence President's Surveillance Program Terrorist Surveillance Program Since 2007 PRISM Dropmire Stateroom Bullrun MYSTIC MonsterMind (alleged) Databases, tools etc. PINWALE MARINA MAINWAY TRAFFICTHIEF DISHFIRE XKeyscore ICREACH BOUNDLESSINFORMANT GCHQ collaboration MUSCULAR Tempora Mastering the Internet Global Telecoms Exploitation
Legislation FISA Protect America Act of 2007 FISA Amendments Act of 2008 Patriot Act
Institutions FISC Senate Intelligence Committee
Lawsuits ACLU v. NSA Hepting v. AT&T Jewel v. NSA Clapper v. Amnesty Klayman v. Obama ACLU v. Clapper Wikimedia v. NSA
Whistleblowers William Binney Thomas Drake Mark Klein Edward Snowden Thomas Tamm Russ Tice
Publication 2005 warrantless surveillance scandal 2013 mass surveillance scandal
Related Cablegate Surveillance of reporters Mail tracking UN diplomatic spying Insider Threat Program Mass surveillance in the United States Mass surveillance in the United Kingdom
Concepts SIGINT Metadata
Collaboration United States CSS CYBERCOM DOJ FBI CIA DHS IAO Five Eyes CSEC GCHQ ASD GCSB Other DGSE BND

FASCIA is a massive database of the U.S. National Security Agency that contains trillions of device-location records that are collected from a variety of sources.^[1] Its existence was revealed during the 2013 global surveillance disclosure by Edward Snowden.^[2]

Scope of surveillance

The FASCIA database stores various types of information, including Location Area Codes (LACs), Cell Tower IDs (CeLLIDs), Visitor Location Registers (VLRs), International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEIs) and MSISDNs (Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network-Numbers).^[1][2]

Over a period of about seven months, more than 27 terabytes of location data were collected and stored in the database.^[3]

Gallery

• 

  Every day, five billion device-location records are added to the database

See also

• Dishfire

References

1. 1 2 Narayan Lakshman (2013-12-05). "NSA tracking millions of cellphones globally". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 2014-03-23. Retrieved 2014-03-23. 
2. 1 2 The Washington Post (2013-12-04). "FASCIA: The NSA's huge trove of location records". The Washington Post. Archived from the original (2 slides) on 2014-03-23. Retrieved 2014-03-23. 
3. ↑ The Washington Post (2013-12-04). "GHOSTMACHINE: The NSA's cloud analytics platform". The Washington Post. Archived from the original (4 slides) on 2014-03-23. Retrieved 2014-03-23.