138 Million Books A Day

It’s been over a decade since the National Security Agency (NSA) began illegally intercepting Americans’ phone calls and emails without warrants or suspicion of wrongdoing. In 2008, Congress rubber-stamped this warrantless wiretapping program by amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), giving NSA the power to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international communications. Within an hour of President Bush signing the 2008 amendment, the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the law’s constitutionality.
 
Still, not surprisingly, the NSA is taking full advantage of the power given to it by Congress. Every day, the NSA intercepts and stores a staggering 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls, texts, and other electronic communications. That’s roughly equivalent to 138 million books, every 24 hours.
 
The ACLU has just released an infographic that illustrates exactly what this “unchained” NSA looks like. Because the 2008 amendments are scheduled to sunset in December, the ACLU is also calling on Congress to Fix FISA by prohibiting dragnet surveillance, mandating more transparency about the government’s surveillance activities, and strengthening safeguards for privacy.