New PRISM Slides Appear to Reveal Number of Active Surveillance Targets

The Washington Post on Saturday published four new top-secret government slides with details about the National Security Agency program known as PRISM, including the number of individual surveillance targets being monitored in the database.

One slide, according to the Post, confirms the NSA's ability to conduct real-time surveillance. The Post describes how "depending on the provider, the NSA may receive live notifications when a target logs on or sends an e-mail, or may monitor a voice, text or voice chat as it happens."

Image source: Washington Post

Also detailed is the process for an analyst to begin monitoring a new target, including automatic oversight by a supervisor to ensure the target is not an American citizen or on American soil. Another (above) shows the flow of how data obtained from Internet companies, such as Google or Yahoo!, is processed and analyzed.

Another slide appears to show how as of April 5, there were 117,675 "records," described by the Post as "active surveillance targets" in the PRISM database.

See all four new slides at The Washington Post.

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