The National Security Agency (NSA) has secretly created a "Google-like" search engine to sift through records of 24 U.S. government agencies.

The technology was launched in 2007, said "The Intercept," a website featuring classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

Retired NSA Director Gen Keith Alexander is said to have been the brains behind the search engine.

Like Us on Facebook

The search engine, REACH, also christened, "ICREACH," is able to look through 850 billion records, including emails, internet chats and phone calls.

According to "The Intercept," communication records not only contain private communication between foreigners, but also millions of Americans who have never been charged with criminal offenses.

The website said ICREACH, which is capable of managing anywhere from two to five billion new records per day, is being used to share secret surveillance internally. It can currently sift through over 30 varieties of metadata on faxes, phone calls, internet chats, emails and text messages.

Metadata includes information such as the sender, recipient of the call or message, the time the message or call was received and even what kind of device was used.

The technology can also gather location information from mobile phones.

A U.S. official who knows about the system said although it allows intelligence metadata to be shared, it's "not a repository (and) does not store events or records."

The Director of National Intelligence confirmed the technology does exist and is "a pillar of the post-9/11 intelligence community." It's part of an effort to prevent valuable intelligence from being "stovepiped in any single office or agency."

In a 2010 memo about the search engine, around 1,000 analysts from almost two dozen government agencies had access to NSA's records, even without a court order.

Through the sharing tool, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and CIA are able to have access to classified records.