'Columbus III, NSA/GCHQ-Tapped Undersea Cable, Atlantic Ocean, 2015, C-print, 48 x 60 inches, courtesy of Metro Pictures Gallery. Photo by Trevor Paglen. For the exhibition, Paglen photographed underwater and beachside cables that the NSA uses to siphon data.
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For more on Trevor Paglen, watch The Creators Project's 2013 documentary on the artist:
Today, the vast majority of internet traffic, telephone calls, browsing data, and emails cross the world along seafloor fiber optic wires. The government first started tapping these during the Cold War, when the NSA, CIA, and Navy launched Operation Ivy Bells, in which submarines and divers used recording pods to spy on the Soviets. The initiative ended in 1981, when NSA analyst Ronald Pelton was caught selling information about the program to Russia, but the same surveillance tactics have persisted into the present.
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'Mid-Atlantic Crossing (MAC) NSA/GCHQ-Tapped Undersea Cable Atlantic Ocean' (2015). C-print 48 x 60 in. Courtesy of Metro Pictures. Photo by Trevor Paglen
