Electronic surveiilance

The FBI has quietly been hacking Americans for 20 years

Countless Snowden leaks have detailed the highly sophisticated tools used by the NSA to collect data in bulk from unsuspecting people, including American citizens. But the NSA isn’t the only agency conducting spying operations. The FBI has been spying on US citizens as part of ongoing investigations for two decades, yet many details about its data collection practices are still secret, despite all of the leaks in recent years.

According to Wired, the FBI’s history of hacking goes back for some two decades, but little is known about the types of tools and spying operations it conducts. That’s because search warrants often fail to provide detailed information about wiretapping techniques, and defense attorneys don’t always challenge the FBI.