Mass surveillance industry

Current developments

Fuelled by widespread fears of terrorist attacks, the future of surveillance is particularly promising in the field of video content analysis, where computers analyze live camera feeds to count the number of people, register temperature changes, and automatically identify suspicious behavior via statistical algorithms. The following terrorist attacks have led to a significant increase in street-level surveillance:

Private intelligence agencies

Private intelligence agencies are non-governmental corporations involved in the collection and analysis of information. Prior to the 9/11 attacks, such tasks were mostly performed by governmental agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the gathering of intelligence was rapidly outsourced by the U.S. government to private intelligences agencies, which function as independent contractors.

According to The Washington Post, about one in four U.S. intelligence workers are contractors, and over 70 percent of the budget of the United States Intelligence Community is earmarked for payment to private firms. An examination by The Post found that 1,931 private companies work on programs related to intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

The average annual cost of a contract employee is US$250,000, almost twice that of a federal employee.

Stratfor

Strategic Forecasting, Inc., more commonly known as Stratfor, is a global intelligence company founded in 1996 in Austin, Texas. It offers information to governments and private clients including Dow Chemical Company, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, and the U.S. Marine Corps.

In 2012-13, over 5 million internal e-mails from Stratfor were released by Wikileaks.

Booz Allen Hamilton

Booz Allen Hamilton is a publicly traded company that is majority-owned by The Carlyle Group, a global asset management firm specializing in private equity, based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1914 by Edwin G. Booz, Booz Allen Hamilton became one of the most profitable private contractors by supplying tens of thousands of intelligence analysts to the U.S. federal government. During the fiscal year of 2013, Booz Allen Hamilton derived 99% of its income from the government, and the largest portion of its revenue (16%) came from the U.S. Army. Half of its employees carry top secret security clearances. In the first half of 2013, Booz Allen Hamilton has won numerous contracts, including:

In 2006, Booz Allen Hamilton was recognized by Fortune magazine as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For". In 2013, Booz Allen Hamilton was hailed by Bloomberg Businessweek as "the World's Most Profitable Spy Organization".

Controversy

Commercial mass surveillance often makes use of copyright laws and "user agreements" to obtain (typically uninformed) 'consent' to surveillance from consumers who use their software or other related materials. This allows gathering of information which would be technically illegal if performed by government agencies. This data is then often shared with government agencies - thereby - in practice - defeating the purpose of such privacy protections.

Reporters Without Borders' March 2013 Special report on Internet Surveillance contained a list of "Corporate Enemies of the Internet", companies that sell products that are liable to be used by governments to violate human rights and freedom of information. The five companies on the initial list were: Amesys (France), Blue Coat Systems (U.S.), Gamma (UK and Germany), Hacking Team (Italy), and Trovicor (Germany), but the list was not exhaustive and is likely to be expanded in the future.