# MAINWAY **Entity class:** Reported NSA metadata-analysis system **Domain:** Signals intelligence / contact chaining / network analysis **Maturity:** Publicly documented through declassified and journalistic records ## Definition **MAINWAY** is the reported NSA system associated with telephony metadata and contact-chaining analysis. Public reporting describes it as precomputing relationships among communications identifiers so analysts can retrieve multi-hop networks without scanning the full corpus for every query. The system illustrates how [[wiki/Contact Tracing|contact-tracing]] grammar becomes intelligence computation: begin with a selector, retrieve first-hop contacts, expand within authorized limits, and inspect a community of interest. The resulting edge records establish communication metadata, not the content, purpose, or guilt of every participant. ## Relationships - **collection domain:** [[wiki/SIGINT|SIGINT]]. - **method:** [[wiki/Contact Chaining|Contact Chaining]] and [[wiki/Social Network Analysis|Social Network Analysis]]. - **semantic model:** [[wiki/Synapse|SYNAPSE]]. - **operational concept:** [[wiki/Real-Time Observability|Real-Time Observability]]. ## Sources / Provenance - [ACLU — NSA contact-chaining memo](https://www.aclu.org/documents/nsa-contact-chaining-memo) - [Wired — Inside the NSA's Secret Tool for Mapping Your Social Network](https://www.wired.com/story/inside-the-nsas-secret-tool-for-mapping-your-social-network/)