The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 24/2013 (June 10, 2013) of DER SPIEGEL. Obama, der verlorene Freund "It's about rendering people and their behavior predictable. The NSA's research projects aim to forecast, on the basis of telephone data and Twitter and Facebook posts, when uprisings, social protests and other events will occur." "...Gus Hunt added, almost apologetically: "Technology in this world is moving faster than government or law can keep up."