Today in Labor History May 20, 1949: The U.S. established the National Security Agency. Up until recently it was (and probably still is) the nation’s largest spy agency, in spite of massive cuts and mass firings by the Trump administration. The NSA currently engages in worldwide mass data collection as well as physically bugging targets. They were likely behind the 2010Stuxnet software attack that severely damaged Iran’s nuclear program. The NSA spied on anti-Vietnam War activists and continues to spy on U.S. citizens. Many of their secret surveillance programs were leaked by Edward Snowden, who was forced to flee the country. He is now living in exile in Russia. Private companies, like AT&T and Verizon have collaborated with the NSA to help them spy on U.S. citizens. They supposedly have access to all communications made via Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube, AOL, Skype, Apple.

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