--- title: Edward Snowden: Documents Reveal Obama Administration Expanded Spying description: According to National Security Agency documents, administrated expanded warrantless surveillance of Americans' Internet searches. canonical: https://time.com/3909293/edward-snowden-obama-nsa-spying/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-04T16:47:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:01.378Z article:section: Politics og:title: New Snowden Documents Reveal Obama Administration Expanded NSA Spying og:description: The Justice Department was looking for evidence of computer hacking schemes og:url: https://time.com/3909293/edward-snowden-obama-nsa-spying/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Snowden Documents Reveal Obama Administration Expanded NSA Spying twitter:description: The Justice Department was looking for evidence of computer hacking schemes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # New Snowden Documents Reveal Obama Administration Expanded NSA Spying > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Person of the Year 2013 Shortlist: Edward Snowden [Watch (HLS stream): Person of the Year 2013 Shortlist: Edward Snowden](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cxBatp7g.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2013-12-11. TIME's Michael Scherer explains why NSA leaker Edward Snowden is on the short list for the 2013 TIME Person of the Year._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 4, 2015 4:47 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 4, 2015 4:47 PM UTC The Obama administration expanded warrantless surveillance of Americans’ Internet searches, according to new National Security Agency documents released by Edward Snowden. [According to ProPublica](https://www.propublica.org/article/new-snowden-documents-reveal-secret-memos-expanding-spying), which obtained documents from Snowden, in 2012 the Justice Department authorized the NSA to search Internet cables on American soil without a warrant for evidence of computer hacking schemes originating abroad. The secret memos from 2012 say the NSA could watch Internet traffic flowing to suspicious addresses or containing malware, as well as monitor addresses and cyber signatures. [Read more at ProPublica](https://www.propublica.org/article/new-snowden-documents-reveal-secret-memos-expanding-spying) ## Transcript >> Edward Snowden made TIME's shortlist for 'Person of the Year' this year. In late spring and early summer I once known a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton, who was working for the National Security Agency began contacting reporters around the world saying he wanted to give them information. He basically took, as one person told me, one of everything. From the deepest, darkest safe house within the NSA describing almost everything they are doing around the world to collect information both on regular citizens and on traditional surveillance targets. The effects of these disclosures have really been earth shaking both domestically and around the world. In the U. S. there's Congressional Reform efforts President Obama has come up saying he wants to pursue reforms, there's resolutions with the United Nations that could actually change the way the world talks about privacy as a human right. And then there are a number of diplomatic crisis that have started as a result of this. The sense of the allies of the United States very upset about the surveillance that's been disclosed. And finally there's a real fear among U. S. technology created that foreign customers will not trust them now both because there are working relationships between the NSA and these companies. But also because the Snowden disclosures revealed that the NSA was also hacking into these technology companies without their knowledge. Snowden was 29 years old when he leaked this information. He has since turned 30, he's living now in Moscow on a one year asylum grant from the Russian government. He is someone who has thought very deeply about what he did. He thought very strategically about the information he leaked, and he has a cogent argument which has been spreading. And, for that reason I think that the mark that Snowden will leave on the world is that he is the person who has really introduced in a popular sense the notion that this brave new world of internet communication which gives us so much wonderful things can have a dark side. >> This is about a trend in the relationship between the governing and the governed. >> And there is a requirement among democratic states to think about the issues that arise here and figure out what rules and regulations they want to put in play. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3909293/edward-snowden-obama-nsa-spying/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3909293/edward-snowden-obama-nsa-spying/"},"headline":"New Snowden Documents Reveal Obama Administration Expanded NSA Spying","datePublished":"2015-06-04T16:47:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:59:01.378Z","description":"The Justice Department was looking for evidence of computer hacking schemes","url":"https://time.com/3909293/edward-snowden-obama-nsa-spying/","keywords":["White House","NSA","Barack Obama","Edward Snowden"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3909293/edward-snowden-obama-nsa-spying/","name":"New Snowden Documents Reveal Obama Administration Expanded NSA Spying"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Person of the Year 2013 Shortlist: Edward Snowden","description":"TIME's Michael Scherer explains why NSA leaker Edward Snowden is on the short list for the 2013 TIME Person of the Year.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/cxBatp7g/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-11T12:42:24.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cxBatp7g.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3909293/edward-snowden-obama-nsa-spying/","duration":"PT2M26S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3909293/edward-snowden-obama-nsa-spying/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```