Agents for the US' National Security Agency have access to emails, online chats and other internet activity of millions of people under a surveillance programme revealed by Edward Snowden.
The Guardian newspaper published documents detailing the programme, called XKeyscore, including what it said were training slides.
One presentation claims XKeyscore can track "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", the newspapers reported.
That includes everything from the contents of emails and Facebook messages to web browsing and search histories, according to the newspaper.
This can be done with almost any identifying information, be it email address, IP address, phone number, keywords, or even browser type.
The searches are all performed on the XKeyscore database, which manages enormous quantities of data.
Protesters in Berlin in support of Snowden Analysts simply have to fill in an onscreen form "giving only a broad justification for the search", said the report.
Some of the slides appear to carry screenshots showing sample search queries such as "Show me all encrypted word documents from Iran" or "Show me all the word documents that reference Osama Bin Laden".
Snowden, a former NSA contractor, had said in an interview published by The Guardian in June that he had the authority to spy on any American he pleased - "you, your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President if I had a personal email".
In a second interview with the newspaper, he explained that his claim was based in part on the email search capabilities of XKeyscore, which Snowden says he was authorized to use while working as a Booz Allen contractor for the NSA.
The newspaper says XKeyscore provides the technological ability - if not the legal cover - to target US citizens for electronic surveillance without the need for a warrant, provided the analyst has information such as an IP or email address.
One slide says that XKeyscore has led to the capture of more than 300 terrorists.
In a statement, the NSA said that figure only included captures up to the year 2008, and pushed back against any suggestion of illegal or arbitrary collection of data.
"These types of programmes allow us to collect the information that enables us to perform our missions successfully - to defend the nation and to protect US and allied troops abroad," the statement said.
The Guardian quoted another slide as saying that nearly 42 billion records had been captured by the system during a one-month period in 2012.
So much content was being collected, the newspaper said, that it could be stored only for short periods of time - generally just a few days.
Snowden, who is wanted in the US on espionage charges, is seeking asylum but remains stuck at a Moscow airport. He previously revealed other wide-ranging surveillance schemes employed by the US to detect possible threats to national security.
The new revelations will fuel the debate on surveillance practices in the US and the right to privacy of its citizens.
The US has defended the spying programmes, saying they have helped thwart terror attacks. But it has also tried to assuage concerns by civil rights groups.
The director of National Intelligence has declassified some documents about its bulk collection of phone and email metadata.
Snowden remains stuck at Moscow airport Meanwhile, at a hacker convention in Las Vegas on Wednesday, the head of the NSA, Army General Keith Alexander, remained unapologetic about the surveillance programmes, even as he was heckled.
He said government methods used to collect telephone and email data helped foil 54 terror plots.
But the figure drew scepticism back in Washington.
"Not by any stretch can you get 54 terrorist plots," said the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy.
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