Thanks to rapid advances being made in the field of facial recognition technology, the NSA is much better equipped to "exploit the flood of images included in emails, text messages, social media, video conferences and other communications," according to an article in the New York Times, co-written by Laura Poitras, who, together with Glen Greenwald, are the only two journalists to have received the leaked NSA documents.

The NSA has the capacity to intercept "millions of images per day," as well as some 55,000 "facial recognition quality images." This latest milestone in US intelligence gathering, which goes a long way to putting the final touches on the much-feared Orwellian nightmare, gives the US spy agency"tremendous untapped potential," according to the 2011 documents.