How does it work? The Echelon partner nations have deployed "sniffer" programs that monitor the data traffic at six critical junctions on the Internet, vacuuming in as much information as they can and submitting it to the "Dictionary," a series of programs dedicated to finding red flag phrases -- for example, conversations about assassinating public figures. The results are then sorted and sent to the appropriate intelligence branch of the appropriate nation. As a result, as much as 90 percent of all traffic on the Net is being scanned by the NSA and other espionage organizations, just as thoroughly as if they were rummaging in your mailbox with a letter opener. MORE>>
The Government Is Reading Your E-mail
In the past month a series of announcements from
the governments of Australia, the U.K., Canada,
France, Germany, Sweden and the U.S., among
others, has brought to light the existence of a
massive international electronic surveillance
network known as "Echelon." Its existence was
officially confirmed by the Australian intelligence
agency back on May 23. In a nutshell, Echelon is
a joint project undertaken by the U.S. and its
allies to monitor satellite transmissions, phone
calls and the Internet.