FASCIA is a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...

created and used by the U.S.

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collectio ...

that contains trillions of device-location records that are collected from a variety of sources. Its existence was revealed during the 2013

global surveillance disclosure Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and s ...

Scope of surveillance

The FASCIA database stores various types of information, including

Location Area Code In geography, location or place are used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term ''location'' generally implies a higher degree of certainty than ''place'', the latter often indicating an entity with an ...

s (LACs), Cell Tower IDs (CeLLIDs),

Visitor Location Register Network switching subsystem (NSS) (or GSM core network) is the component of a GSM system that carries out call out and mobility management functions for mobile phones roaming on the network of base stations. It is owned and deployed by mo ...

s (VLRs),

International Mobile Station Equipment Identity The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) is a numeric identifier, usually unique, for 3GPP and iDEN mobile phones, as well as some satellite phones. It is usually found printed inside the battery compartment of the phone but can also ...

(IMEIs) and MSISDNs (Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network-Numbers). Over a period of about seven months, more than 27

terabyte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

s of location data were collected and stored in the database.

Gallery

Image:NSA_FASCIA.pdf, Every day, five billion device-location records are added to the database

References

National Security Agency American secret government programs Intelligence agency programmes revealed by Edward Snowden {{US-gov-stub

Scope of surveillance

Gallery

See also

References