Browse Exhibits (5 total)
Welcome to the Snowden Digital Surveillance Archive
This archive is a collection of all documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that have subsequently been published by news media.
Our aim in creating this archive is to provide a tool that would facilitate citizen, researcher and journalist access to these important documents. Indexes, document descriptions, links to original documents and to related news stories, a glossary and comprehensive search features are all designed to enable a better understanding of state surveillance programs within the wider context of surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) along with its partners in the Five Eyes countries – U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Our hope is that this resource will contribute to greater awareness of the broad scope, intimate reach and profound implications of the global surveillance infrastructures and practices that Edward Snowden’s historic document leak reveals.
The Snowden Archive is the result of a research collaboration between Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) and the Politics of Surveillance Project at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. Partners and supporters of this initiative include the Surveillance Studies Centre, Queen's University; the Digital Curation Institute, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto; and the Centre for Free Expression, Faculty of Communications and Design, Ryerson University
Archive-in-a-Box
About
The Snowden Archive-in-a-Box is an autonomous version of the Internet-based archive Snowden Digital Surveillance Archive. It is a stand-alone wifi network and web server that permits you to research all files leaked by Edward Snowden and subsequently published by the media. The purpose of the portable archive is to provide end-users with a secure off-line method for individuals to use this database without the threat of mass surveillance. By default, the wifi network is open, but users can create their own wifi passwords and choose their encryption standard.
The Snowden Archive-in-a-Box began as part of an evolving and touring European project called Performigrations which focuses on migration/immigration and was launched in Montreal at the Blue Metropolis literary festival in April 2015. An evolving project in its own right, the Snowden Archive-in-a-Box also includes a surveillance demonstration apparatus that monitors wifi traffic around it and plays it back to the public.
The Snowden Archive-in-a-Box is based on a RaspberryPi mini-computer and the Raspbian operating system. All software is open-source. It was developed by and is maintained by Dr. Evan Light, a communications professor at York University.
Glossary
This is a list of key terms that are used in the collection. In many cases they have been gleaned from definitions provided in the leaked documents or from insight provided by the news articles, and in some cases Wikipedia.
- NSA-GCHQ Snowden Leaks: A glossary of the key terms (BBC)
- NSA Files: Decoded (The Guardian)
- How the NSA's Domestic Spying Program Works (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
- LeakSource