MUSCULAR

E453948

MUSCULAR is a formerly secret joint NSA–GCHQ surveillance program that tapped into private data links between major tech companies’ data centers to collect large volumes of user information.

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Label Occurrences
MUSCULAR canonical 3

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (46)

Predicate Object
instanceOf signals intelligence operation
surveillance program
abbreviation DS-200B
alsoKnownAs DS-200B
associatedAgency Central Security Service
UK Ministry of Defence
classification formerly secret
codename MUSCULAR
collectionPoint international data links
links between data centers outside the United States
collects content data
metadata
user information
controversy warrantless collection of data from private networks
country United Kingdom
United States
dataProcessingLocation GCHQ facilities
NSA data centers
disclosedBy The Washington Post
linked to: Washington Post
disclosedIn 2013
field signals intelligence
impact privacy concerns for users of major tech companies
tension between tech companies and intelligence agencies
jurisdictionFocus foreign communications
leakedBy Edward Snowden
ledTo increased encryption of data center links by tech companies
legalBasis Executive Order 12333
method tapping private data links between data centers
operator Government Communications Headquarters
National Security Agency
oversight limited judicial oversight
purpose mass data collection
signals intelligence collection
relatedTo PRISM
Upstream collection programs
responseFrom Google
Yahoo
scale large volumes of data
status exposed
subjectOf debates on government surveillance and privacy
news reports on mass surveillance
target Google data center links
Yahoo data center links
private data links between major tech companies’ data centers
technologyUsed fiber-optic cable interception
typeOfAccess upstream collection

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.