All language subtitles for Americas.Book.Of.Secrets.S03E02_English

>> NARRATOR: Prying eyes

watching every move.

>> JESSELYN RADACK: People are

being monitored way more than

they realize.

>> NARRATOR: Eager ears

eavesdropping on conversations.

>> SAMY KAMKAR: Those devices

listen to what's happening in

your living room.

>> NARRATOR: And hungry hands

rifling files in an

unrestricted search for private

data.

>> MANCOW MULLER: This is like a

Logan's Run kind of future.

This is frightening stuff.

>> NARRATOR: Americans are under

surveillance like never before.

But just who is monitoring us?

>> MARK DICE: Facebook actually

works hand in hand with the

government.

>> NARRATOR: And what are their

secret reasons

for tracking millions of

citizens every day?

>> ALEX JONES: Imagine what an

Adolf Hitler or a Joseph Stalin

would have done with these

NSA-type powers.

>> THOMAS DRAKE: Those are some

of the most secret of the

secrets that exist in the

United States today.

>> NARRATOR: There are those

who believe in the existence

of a book.

A book that contains the most

highly guarded secrets of the

United States of America.

A book... whose very existence

is known to only a select few.

But if such a book exists,

what would it contain?

Secret agendas?

Secret tactics?

Secret alliances?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

June 5, 2013.

America awakens to a shocking

headline-- one that shakes the

country to its core.

A British newspaper,

The Guardian, reveals that the

National Security Agency, or

NSA, has been secretly

collecting cell phone data from

millions of people without their

knowledge.

Americans can now confirm,

without a doubt, that the

government has been monitoring

its citizens.

Even if they have no ties to

terrorism.

And they've been doing so for

years.

The unbelievable disclosures

come from a former NSA

contractor named Edward Snowden.

>> GLENN GREENWALD: We had to go

to Hong Kong in order to meet

him.

We didn't know if we had been

followed or were being

surveilled.

He would be holding a Rubik's

cube, which is how we would be

able to identify him, because we

didn't know what he looked like.

And what he told me is that very

few of the surveillance programs

actually have anything to do

with 9/11 or terrorism or

national security.

>> MARK ZAID: Edward Snowden was

entrusted to keep some of the

most secretive notions and

activities of our government.

And he betrayed that.

Is he this hero or is he a

traitor?

Now, I look at him as, frankly,

right now, just a criminal.

>> NARRATOR: Although some view

Snowden as a traitor, even they

cannot deny the facts that his

leaks exposed.

For the first time in our

nation's history, the technology

exists to monitor and track

every American.

>> RONALD KESSLER: We are much

more monitored and "under

surveillance"-- if you want to

use that term-- than in the

past, whether it's NSA looking

at e-mails or telephone records

or whether it's simply

surveillance cameras wherever we

go.

>> JOSH MARPET: We're watched

from the moment we get up to the

moment we go to bed.

When you wake up, what's the

first thing you do?

You go to the bathroom.

You jump in the shower.

You turn the water on and brush

your teeth.

There are water meter rings that

go around your water pipe to

check whether water's flowing

through it.

There's the power meter rings,

where the meter readings are

being beamed, in real time, back

to the power company.

So, the power company can tell

you, after a while, which

appliance corresponds to which

power spike.

So, I can monitor everything you

do in your house without ever

having a camera inside.

>> MULLER: We have four miles of

farmland, my family does, in the

middle of Missouri.

The heartland.

The Bible Belt.

The buckle of the Bible Belt.

And there's a drone.

I talked about it.

We got attacked.

"Oh, it's crazy talk."

And then the stuff is revealed

to be true.

Now they admit, yeah, they're

watching us with drones.

And they never apologize.

>> JONES: Google has come out

and bragged that they can

predict-- over 93% of the time--

a month out where you're gonna

go eat dinner on a certain date.

It knows the little patterns in

your own minds.

Imagine what an Adolf Hitler or

a Joseph Stalin would have done

with these NSA-type powers

against the people of Europe.

>> NARRATOR: Many Americans now

wonder: could the unprecedented

level of surveillance in our

society be termed Big Brother?

>> ZAID: Big Brother, of

course, is a fictional character

from George Orwell's book, 1984.

It's come to symbolize this

obsessive, intrusive, oppressive

government that would be not

only in the shadows but also in

our faces of monitoring

everything that any citizen

does.

>> RADACK: Big Brother is a

metaphor, right now, for our

surveillance state and the

fact that the government has

insight into everything.

Your health records, your tax

records, your texts, your

e-mails, your phone calls,

everything.

All electronic digital data

that belongs to you is within

the purview of the government to

take at any time, and they are.

>> DRAKE: Some of us have called

it "turnkey tyranny."

All the enabling mechanisms, the

technology is in place.

>> NARRATOR: The Snowden leaks

reveal a level of covert data

tracking previously unthought-of

in our country's history.

Not only on our phones but also

online.

Even more shocking: they expose

how the NSA stores this

collected data for an

undisclosed amount of time, in

case it's needed for future

investigations.

Some intelligence experts now

wonder if the NSA has crossed

the line and gone too far.

>> DRAKE: It is important to

understand the NSA was formed

for a very specific purpose and

that was in 1952 under the

Truman administration.

It was designed to be a

technical collection agency of

foreign intelligence.

The things that mattered.

The things that were considered

threats.

That structure was still there

as of 9/11.

>> NARRATOR: The largest attack

on American soil, 9/11, left

more than 2,900 dead and would

forever change how and when the

government collects data on its

own citizens.

Defense agencies felt more

pressure than ever to find and

track terrorist communications

both here and abroad.

And they were willing to cast a

wide net in order to foil future

terrorist plots.

>> KESSLER: After 9/11, the

intelligence community became

involved in, uh, sifting-- much

more extensively-- the means of

communication, looking for leads

to terrorists, looking to roll

up plots before they happen

rather than after they happen.

>> CLINT VAN ZANDT: The measure

of a successful terrorist is

whether he's actually able to

kill, whether to carry out the

mission or not.

The FBI and other law

enforcement agencies, ever since

9/11, have intercepted a number

of individuals.

>> NARRATOR: While the NSA

claims their surveillance has

stopped acts of terrorism before

they could begin, the Snowden

revelations lead some to

question: is the current level

of NSA surveillance really about

curbing terrorism?

Does the NSA really need to

track the data and location of

every American in order to stop

a future terrorist attack?

>> MARPET: If you can collect

enough information, you can

determine the patterns of people

that are terrorists.

But a mass information-gathering

conglomeration-- without regard

to whether they're terrorists--

that's one that may not be as

legitimate.

>> NARRATOR: Although both

Republican and Democrat

administrations have approved

the NSA's secret data

collection, there are now many

who believe that the NSA is

becoming something it was never

meant to be: a domestic spy

agency...

one that operates in secret.

(camera shutter clicks)

>> DRAKE: After 9/11, the

government was doing all kinds

of things in the deepest of

secrecy, without any knowledge

by the public.

Five days after 9/11, Vice

President Cheney said publicly--

network television-- we're gonna

go to "the dark side."

>> NARRATOR: Could that dark

side include violating the

Fourth Amendment?

A law that prohibits

unreasonable searches and

seizures of American citizens?

>> DRAKE: Three and a half weeks

after 9/11, I had the

conversation with the number

three person at NSA, not knowing

at that time that President Bush

had signed the secret

presidential directive

authorizing NSA to turn the

United States into the

equivalent of a foreign nation.

And he simply said... "You don't

understand, Mr. Drake.

The White House has approved the

program.

It's all legal."

And as soon as I heard that...

the hair is going up on the back

of my neck.

>> NARRATOR: Could the NSA data

collection program be just one

piece of an all-seeing

Big Brother?

What if Big Brother needed to

track not just your private

correspondence but also your

private location at all times?

In fact, what if he was taking

pictures of you...

right in your own home...

even as we speak?

>> NARRATOR: Boston,

Massachusetts.

April 15, 2013.

(explosion)

Two pressure-cooker bombs

explode near the finish line of

the Boston Marathon.

(people shouting, screaming)

The explosions kill three

spectators and injure 264.

The alleged perpetrators:

Chechen brothers Dzhokhar and

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who are

motivated by extremist Islamic

beliefs.

>> RICHARD DESLAURIERS: After a

very detailed analysis of photo,

video, and other evidence, we

are releasing photos of these

two suspects.

>> NARRATOR: Fortunately the

event is captured on a multitude

of public and private cameras,

which enable law enforcement to

identify the brothers, leading

to the death of Tamerlan and the

capture of Dzhokhar after a

four-day manhunt.

While many agree that an

extensive network of public and

private cameras can help catch

criminal behavior, some experts

worry-- do events like the

Boston bombing justify the

ability of authorities to watch

over our every move?

>> RADACK: Americans are

monitored a lot more, but the

problem is, they aren't informed

that they're being monitored.

I mean, at least in Britain they

have stickers everywhere saying:

You are under surveillance.

But here people are being

monitored way more than I

think... they realize.

>> NARRATOR: New York, New York.

On the southern tip of Manhattan

is the city's financial

district, one of the most

powerful economic centers on the

planet.

(bell rings)

But could it also be one of the

most secretly watched?

>> MARPET: Just about every

dollar in the world comes

through here at one point or

another.

They want to make sure it's

protected.

So they built what they call the

Ring of Steel.

The financial district is

encircled by a huge amount of

cameras, surveillance devices.

They incorporate private

cameras, public cameras,

police cameras to make sure

that every avenue into and out

of the financial district of New

York City is covered completely.

>> NARRATOR: Could this Ring of

Steel, hidden discreetly above

the heads of thousands of

bankers, tourists and residents,

be quietly monitoring

the streets below?

>> MARPET: We've got so many

cameras around, it's not even

funny.

Right up here, for example,

there's a pan-tilt-zoom camera.

With that one camera, they can

look all around this block and

see anything with a 30x zoom.

>> NARRATOR: But while

closed-circuit cameras can work

to solve crimes after the fact--

like locating the suspects in

the Boston Marathon bombings--

could they also be used by law

enforcement to identify

perpetrators before a crime even

happens?

The answer is: yes, they can--

thanks to a top secret camera

system called TrapWire.

>> DICE: TrapWire is a secret

facial recognition system that's

been in operation since 2007,

where major cities in America

have facial recognition scanning

cameras already operational, and

have for years.

>> MARPET: Let's imagine that

you've got a building.

Somebody wants to commit a

terrorist act against the

building.

They're going to have to surveil

the building.

They're going to have to

basically case the joint.

Well, if I can spot the people

doing reconnaissance, I can stop

the attack before it happens.

Video analytics is incredibly

useful, and in the last few

years it's become incredibly

powerful.

>> NARRATOR: How does a powerful

video-analytic system like

TrapWire even go about

creating a database?

Some say a common social network

is responsible for one of the

most shocking Big Brother

secrets of all.

>> DICE: Facebook, actually, is

one of the biggest facial

recognition databases in the

country, who works hand in hand

with the government through

their secret affiliations.

So, since about at least 2007,

major cities in America,

government buildings, airports,

et cetera, have had fully

functioning facial recognition

scanning systems in there.

>> MARPET: It's used all over

the country and all over the

world for various reasons.

Facial recognition software was

used to find Osama bin Laden

from a satellite.

How much more science fiction

can you get? That's awesome!

>> MULLER: Everything we do is

watched. Everything.

It reminds me of an old Twilight

Zone episode, where...

we're like hamsters.

America's become a Habitrail,

and we are... we're pets.

It's like we're pets of the

government, for our own good.

Everything they do, they say, is

for our own good.

>> NARRATOR: While some admit

it may be impossible to escape

the eye of Big Brother on city

streets, most Americans take

comfort that they can escape his

gaze in the safety of their own

homes.

Or can they?

>> KAMKAR: The Xbox has a really

cool technology called Kinect.

It's multiple cameras on this

one device that you use with

your Xbox, and what it gets is a

3D picture of anyone in front of

it.

There's always the potential for

these devices to get hacked or

accessed somehow, you know, for

nefarious purposes.

>> NARRATOR: Should Americans

be concerned that their

seemingly innocuous home gaming

devices are really portals that

hackers, or perhaps even the

government-- can use to look

inside their homes?

>> KAMKAR: There's no known

cases of the Xbox Kinect being

hacked.

However, the fact is, there is

a camera that's in your living

room, so if a hacker can find

out the right way, it's possible

to enable those devices and

potentially monitor and listen

to what's happening in your

living room.

>> NARRATOR: Even though the

Kinect camera hasn't been

hacked into yet, could there be

good reason to be wary of a

breach at some point?

There are those who claim the

FBI has already used technology

to secretly keep an eye on

Americans in their own homes,

with their own cameras, and

without their consent.

>> KAMKAR: They can actually

start rerecording from your Web

cam on your computer without

the light ever turning on.

This is something the FBI has

had the ability to do for many

years now.

They're not gonna employ that

commonly because they don't

necessarily want everyone to

know.

>> NARRATOR: If Big Brother can

spy on you from the street

corner and peer into your home,

is there really any escape?

Some may try to run to the great

outdoors.

But even there, could there be

prying eyes watching from the

sky?

>> ZAID: You have no idea the

>> NARRATOR: Midland City,

Alabama, February 4, 2013.

FBI agents surround an

underground bunker where

65-year-old kidnapper Jimmy Lee

Dykes has a five-year-old boy

held hostage.

During the tense standoff, the

FBI secretly employs a high-tech

spy machine to see just how

Dykes is behaving during the

hostage negotiations.

>> KESSLER: The FBI was able to

use a drone to pinpoint, with

infrared, exactly where the bad

guy was in relation to the

little child.

>> NARRATOR: When Dykes started

to behave erratically with his

gun, the FBI moved in on the

bunker to rescue the boy.

>> KESSLER: The FBI was able to

go in with the HRT team and wipe

out the bad guy without harming

the kid.

>> NARRATOR: Law enforcement

officials applauded the use of

the spy drone to help save the

boy.

But could there have been the

potential for its abuse?

The Edward Snowden leaks

revealed that America has not

only been using spy drones for

law enforcement-- they've also

been using them to spy on

American citizens.

>> MARPET: Not only visually,

with long-range cameras, but

also over their Wi-Fi, also over

electronics, picking up cell

frequencies from your cell

phones-- all kinds of different

things to get access to all the

information about you: where you

are, who you're talking to, what

you're doing.

Snowden's leak showed that it

was happening at a hugely larger

level than we ever imagined.

>> NARRATOR: The spy drone leak

was confirmed on June 18, 2013,

by outgoing FBI Director Robert

Mueller.

Mueller claims that the use of

domestic spy drones was "very

minimal" and "very seldom."

But critics of domestic drones

wonder if their potential for

abuse outweighs any benefits for

law enforcement.

>> MARPET: There are sheriff's

departments buying drones.

Why would a sheriff's department

need a drone?

Well, they said, "Well, we want

to find out where people are

growing marijuana in the town

limits, we want to make sure

that traffic is flowing

correctly."

And that's why we need drones

for the sheriff's department?

Uh, sorry.

Maybe I'm a little out of touch,

but that doesn't seem like a

good idea to me.

>> ZAID: What are the drones

doing?

You can't hear the drones,

anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000

and feet higher.

You have no idea the drones are

there, but yet they can see into

your house.

They can decide or determine if

you are in your home and perhaps

who you are that's in your home.

>> NARRATOR: Just how many

Americans were targeted by the

FBI's drone surveillance

program?

We may never know.

But critics argue that the

Department of Defense's DARPA--

or Defense Advanced Research

Projects Agency-- is currently

conducting more and more

research into drones that are

smaller, faster, and don't

resemble what we think of as

drones at all.

>> ANTHES: DARPA has been very

interested in drones-- that's no

secret-- and particularly tiny

flying drones, really

inconspicuous things that can

maybe fly into buildings and

conduct surveillance.

And so one scientist at DARPA

realized that maybe they could

use insects as a shortcut to

their tiny flying drones because

insects are already engineered

for flying and they're capable

of doing it for hours at a time.

>> NARRATOR: By implanting small

electric components into the

brains of insects like beetles,

moths, and cockroaches, DARPA

scientists have found that they

can actually control the flight

patterns of these insects by

remote control.

>> ANTHES: The insects aren't

any good if they just fly around

doing whatever insect things

they want to do.

They're only useful if they can

be controlled as well as a

machine, to turn in particular

directions at particular speeds,

flying at certain altitudes.

>> NARRATOR: But how could these

cyborg insects really be used as

drones?

>> ANTHES: They'd want to load

this insect up with various

surveillance equipment.

The bigger the insect is, the

more of a payload it can carry,

things like video cameras or

microphones, to conduct all

sorts of surveillance tasks.

>> NARRATOR: Is this the future

of aerial surveillance, the use

of insects both real and even

cybernetic?

If so, where will the

government's spy capabilities

lead them next?

There are those who believe it

will be in the most shocking

area of all, right within our

very own bodies.

>> MULLER: Y

>> NARRATOR: September 20, 2013.

Apple releases the iPhone 5s to

great fanfare.

The device includes new

technology that allows users to

unlock their phone with a unique

biological identifier, a

fingerprint.

Consumers applaud the move as

one way to make the pricy phones

less likely to be stolen and

hacked.

But just how secure is this

revolutionary innovation?

>> MARPET: There was actually...

I think it was a $40,000 bounty

for the first person to hack the

iPhone fingerprint.

It's been done.

There is a way now to take your

fingerprint off of a Coke can

or a wine glass, scan it and

print it and then put it on the

iPhone.

And guess what-- it'll unlock

your iPhone.

So your iPhone is already hacked

in that fashion.

>> NARRATOR: Apple insists the

fingerprint images won't be

stored in any database.

In other words, even if someone

were able to hack into Apple's

records, they still wouldn't be

able to access your fingerprint.

Even so, there are those who

question whether Apple's new

technology is just another way

for the government to track its

citizens.

>> JONES: The truth is, the NSA

and hundreds of other private

corporations and agencies are in

a gold rush to steal and track

every bit of data they can.

The level of technology they

have makes 1984 look like a

wonderful place to visit

compared to this.

>> NARRATOR: There are some who

argue that cell phones can

already be used as a tracking

device.

It has the capability of knowing

a person's location at all

times, even with the GPS locator

turned off.

One such person is former

computer hacker Samy Kamkar.

>> KAMKAR: In late 2010 I was

researching geolocation with

HTML5, and what it did was, you

could go to a Web site, and it

could tell you exactly where you

were located to the physical

address.

And I thought this was really

interesting, and I looked into

how this worked.

>> NARRATOR: When Kamkar

investigated Google's database,

he made an astonishing

discovery.

The company was secretly storing

subscribers' router addresses.

>> KAMKAR: I investigated that

more, and I found that Google

Street View cars are driving

around, and while they're taking

pictures for their maps program,

they're also tracking where all

these routers are and

correlating it with the current

GPS.

Google now knows that whenever

they see this wireless network

communicating with it, they

would also know where that

person was physically located.

(computer chirps)

>> NARRATOR: Kamkar also

discovered that cell phone

companies seemed to be playing

the same game.

He found that every phone

carrier had created location

databases.

And without their users'

knowledge.

When the information was

revealed, users were incensed.

But even after the wireless

phone companies agreed to change

their policies, the result was

that many of the applications

simply would not work when

tracking features were turned

off.

>> KAMKAR: You pretty much have

to play their game if you want

to use their services.

>> NARRATOR: Could this be Big

Brother's ultimate master plan--

forcing Americans to be

digitally wired to corporate

service providers in order to

complete the most basic of

day-to-day activities?

>> CULLEN HOBACK: To be a member

of modern society, you have to

use Google, you have to use

Facebook, you have to use

LinkedIn.

These are services that people

need for their jobs.

So, to say that we have a

choice, that's an illusion.

>> NARRATOR: Even if some

Americans were willing to try

and forgo cell phone and e-mail

use in their daily routines,

could other monitoring

technologies soon take their

place?

May 2010.

Critics allege President Barack

Obama's health care bill will

have a provision that requires

all participants to be

microchipped.

While the health care bill that

ultimately passes contains no

such mandate, there are many who

believe that all Americans will

eventually be microchipped.

>> MULLER: Rule number one in

Obamacare is, everything has to

be digitized.

Everything has to be digital.

You're gonna have the microchip.

As you walk past anyone, they

can pull off that information,

all of your personal medical

history.

>> NARRATOR: Some suspect the

government might even have an

endgame to avoid implanting RFID

chips into an unwilling American

public.

In July 2012, the FDA approves

the use of digestible microchips

embedded in prescription drugs.

The stated reason for approval--

the chips will help alert

patients when to take their

medication by sending a reminder

to their cell phones.

But some worry-- could these

high-tech pills be used,

instead, to spy on American

citizens?

>> JONES: A microchipped

population and an RFID radio

frequency tracking system is a

real threat and is something

being pushed by the

establishment.

It was eight years ago that

Mexico moved to make the senior

law enforcement take implantable

chips.

And the military is promoting

the soldiers taking chips.

>> NARRATOR: Just how far will

the government go to track an

entire population?

And to do so, would they need

help from other secret sources?

>> NARRATOR: Washington, D.C.,

June 12, 2013.

NSA chief General Keith

Alexander is questioned by the

Senate Appropriations Committee

about the agency's secret

surveillance program.

>> JEFF MERKLEY: Here I have my

cell phone.

What authorized investigation

gave you the grounds for

acquiring my cell phone data?

>> NARRATOR: One of the most

shocking allegations of the

Edward Snowden leaks so far is

the revelation of how the NSA

secretly uses private, high-tech

corporations to gather and

collect data on American

citizens through a super-secret

program called PRISM.

A program that both the

government and big business had

been trying hard to keep hidden.

>> ZAID: PRISM is one of the

programs we've come to learn as

an NSA, essentially, data-mining

function.

It is six degrees of Kevin

Bacon.

It is amassing all of this

information, particularly from,

say, the nine big companies in

the United States, and grabbing

all their data and putting it

into a prism.

A prism that then could be

data-mined.

>> DRAKE: The Internet has

become the single largest

surveillance platform in

history.

These are secret agreements with

companies, and those are some of

the most secret secrets that

exist in the United States

today.

It's just how closely aligned

government and corporations are.

Snowden actually managed to find

one of the secret court orders

compelling Verizon to turn over

every single phone record each

and every day to NSA.

No probable cause.

A hundred million plus

subscribers, and that's just

Verizon.

>> NARRATOR: Some worry that

our digital suppliers, in order

to comply with PRISM, are

holding records of our online

and cell usage for a longer and

longer period of time.

Possibly even... forever.

>> HOBACK: I think one of the

greatest secrets about Facebook

is that we don't have access to

all of the data that they're

storing on us.

What you're not getting is how

long you hovered over your ex's

Facebook page.

What you're not getting is all

of the deleted information that

they're still storing about you.

It's all there, even though

you've said that you deleted it.

They keep it in perpetuity.

>> NARRATOR: Americans may

wonder, what do these huge

corporations get in return for

cooperating with the government?

Could there be a secret reason

why they'd want to comply?

>> DRAKE: None of these

companies have challenged the

government, because they're in

league with the government.

And if you look at the SEC

filings, the 10X filings, you

will see how much money Verizon

actually receives from the

government every year for

providing this kind of

information.

They're not doing this for

free, believe me.

>> NARRATOR: So far there's

been no known change to the

NSA's data collection policies.

And if the government continues

to collect our online data for

companies that we trust, is

there anything we can do to

protect our online privacy?

>> HOBACK: Our digital privacy

has been eroded one click at a

time.

I would say that privacy

agreements are there to take

away our privacy, not to

actually guarantee it.

What companies are after is

getting as much data and

information from us as possible.

That's something that the

government has also wanted for a

very long time, a sort of

unadulterated access to

everything about us.

The problem with terms and

conditions agreements is that

they're designed not to be read.

Many of these things are 40

pages long.

So, do we have any choice in

terms of negotiating these

deals?

No, we don't.

These companies are going to

continue to take away our

rights, and the government is

going to benefit directly from

that.

>> NARRATOR: So far big business

and the federal government have

claimed no wrongdoing.

But if their actions really are

legitimate, why are both working

so hard to keep them so secret?

>> HOBACK: There's this unholy

alliance that's formed between

corporations and the government.

It's really allowed both of them

to get something that they've

wanted forever.

>> NARRATOR: But if our every

communication, action, and

thought is monitored by both

government and big business,

what exactly is their ultimate

plan?

>> NARRATOR: In the 2002 feature

film Minority Report, a special

high-tech police unit locates

and arrests criminals before

they commit their crimes.

Future murders are stopped

solely by analyzing a suspect's

intent to kill.

But is peering into the realm of

a person's inner thoughts and

motivations even possible,

especially when they appear

ordinary on the outside?

Some believe the future of Big

Brother involves just that--

deciphering a person's

intentions before he or she has

a chance to act on them-- and

according to some experts, the

future may already be here with

a secret program created by the

Department of Homeland Security,

called FAST.

>> DICE: FAST stands for Future

Attribution Screening

Technology.

FAST is another creepy Orwellian

government program that is

almost like a lie detector on

steroids.

It's a lie detector system that

detects people's mal intent,

where they can detect supposedly

whether you have bad intentions.

>> NARRATOR: The system uses

cameras and sensors to measure

skin temperature, breathing,

pulse rate, pupil dilation, and

other physiological and

behavioral patterns.

The ultimate goal?

To recognize and stop a

terrorist before they strike.

The technology will most likely

be used at airports, national

borders and special events.

But critics of the system argue

there could be a massive

potential for innocent people

being targeted.

>> DICE: This is essentially

an Orwellian mind-reading

system.

The dangers with these systems

is that they create a lot of

false positives.

So if you're traveling, and

you're nervous or you're

sweating, you may create a false

positive, and so you may be

looked at as a terrorist.

>> NARRATOR: With the federal

government sponsoring high-tech

systems that attempt to read the

minds of its own citizens, some

Americans are wondering out

loud, is the age of Big Brother

upon us?

And, if so, were Edward

Snowden's leaks of NSA secrets

justified?

>> DRAKE: What he's revealing

is the zero sum game.

In order to know anything about

anybody or anything, we need to

have it all.

We need to take it all, we need

to collect it all.

It's like taking all of the sand

on all the beaches of the world

and dumping them into landfills,

and then building a really

expensive sieve to figure out

what you have.

>> MULLER: Big Brother is

controlling all the

information-- everything you do

on the computer, everything you

do on the phone-- for your own

good.

Whenever you hear "for your own

good" from the government, or

"for the children," you're about

to lose some money or freedom,

always.

>> NARRATOR: Can America ever

return to a time when our calls,

texts, and online correspondence

are no longer subject to

government search and analysis?

Some believe that a new NSA data

center in the remote Utah

desert, spanning the area of 19

football fields, already gives

us the answer.

>> HOBACK: Bluffdale, Utah, the

NSA data center.

It can store-- there are

estimates between two billion

and 14 billion gigabytes of

information.

But what Bluffdale is really

about is storing everything--

all phone calls, all e-mails,

all Internet transactions--

so that it can be looked at

at a future date.

>> NARRATOR: The sheer size and

scope of the Bluffdale facility

have many security experts

wondering: is the purpose of the

cavernous building really about

uncovering terrorist

communications?

Or could it have a more ominous

objective?

>> HOBACK: So imagine for a

second if you're a protester and

you get caught and they bring

you in.

Well, they can look at

everything you might have said

up until that point:

relationips that you've had,

friends that you've known.

And then they could potentially

find all of your protester

friends.

So the capabilities of storing

our entire digital trail may

very well lilie in this NSA

Bluffdale data center.

>> MARPET: Could the government

keep tabs on them?

And keep track of them?

And see how they vote?

I think that's specifically

against some amendments to our

Constitution, but we'll see what

actually happens.

>> NARRATOR: With massive NSA

storage facilities, drones that

fly overhead, and digestible

microchips that track our

location, some Americans wonder:

in today's digital age, is the

concept of privacy now extinct?

>> RADACK: We are in danger of

becoming a surveillance state,

the government trying to

convince people that this is

being done in their name.

>> JONES: Knowledge is power.

And it's being used to create

a technocratic dictatorship of

informational control.

And that's really the heart of

what the NSA and others are

doing.

It's about intel, it's about

data.

And it's not for American

interest.

>> MULLER: This is frightening

stuff, how we are turned into

branded beasts that they move

along.

Do you know what you and I are

called to the IRS?

"Inventory."

You brand the cattle.

You microchip the inventory.

Keep an eye on 'em.

>> NARRATOR: If the government

simply sees Americans as a

commodity, who is to blame?

A hierarchy of corporate and

government interests so

intertwined that they must

monitor every American citizen?

Or should we point the finger at

ourselves and our own

complacency?

One thing is certain...

the age of Big Brother has not

only arrived, it has only just

begun.

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