| USA TODAY | - 16 minutes ago |
The
National Security Agency has used its massive collections of electronic
data to create a graphic analysis of some American citizens' social
connections including travel, location, associates and even Facebook
ties, a published report said Saturday.
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The New York Times reports that the super-secret electronic spy agency has developed sophisticated graphs of social connections based on phone call metadata and e-mail logs since beginning the project in November 2010.
The newspaper based its report on documents provided by Edward Snowden, the former agency contractor who leaked classified details of U.S. and British government surveillance.
The analysis resulted from a policy shift by top agency officials aimed at helping to identify and track connections between foreign intelligence targets and Americans with whom they communicate.
The report said the agency was authorized to conduct "large-scale graph analysis on very large sets of communications metadata without having to check "foreignness" of every e-mail address, phone number or other identifier. Previously, such analysis of data had been permitted only for foreigners because of concerns about the privacy of American citizens.
The agency's analysis includes data collected from public, commercial and other sources including Facebook profiles, bank and insurance information, passenger manifests, voter registration, GPS location data, property records and tax data, according to the documents.
An agency spokeswoman, asked about the analyses of Americans' data, said, "All data queries must include a foreign intelligence justification, period."
"All of NSA's work has a foreign intelligence purpose," the spokeswoman told the newspaper. "Our activities are centered on counterterrorism, counterproliferation and cybersecurity."
NSA officials declined to say how many Americans were involved. The documents do not describe what has resulted from the scrutiny, the report said.
The report follows earlier disclosures about massive data collection efforts by U.S. electronic spy operations that have prompted calls by members of Congress in both parties to place new limits on the agency.
end quote from:
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Report: NSA tracks social ties on Facebook
William M. Welch, USA TODAY
1:38 p.m. EDT September 28, 2013
The New York Times reports that the super-secret electronic spy agency has developed sophisticated graphs of social connections based on phone call metadata and e-mail logs since beginning the project in November 2010.
The newspaper based its report on documents provided by Edward Snowden, the former agency contractor who leaked classified details of U.S. and British government surveillance.
The analysis resulted from a policy shift by top agency officials aimed at helping to identify and track connections between foreign intelligence targets and Americans with whom they communicate.
The report said the agency was authorized to conduct "large-scale graph analysis on very large sets of communications metadata without having to check "foreignness" of every e-mail address, phone number or other identifier. Previously, such analysis of data had been permitted only for foreigners because of concerns about the privacy of American citizens.
The agency's analysis includes data collected from public, commercial and other sources including Facebook profiles, bank and insurance information, passenger manifests, voter registration, GPS location data, property records and tax data, according to the documents.
An agency spokeswoman, asked about the analyses of Americans' data, said, "All data queries must include a foreign intelligence justification, period."
"All of NSA's work has a foreign intelligence purpose," the spokeswoman told the newspaper. "Our activities are centered on counterterrorism, counterproliferation and cybersecurity."
NSA officials declined to say how many Americans were involved. The documents do not describe what has resulted from the scrutiny, the report said.
The report follows earlier disclosures about massive data collection efforts by U.S. electronic spy operations that have prompted calls by members of Congress in both parties to place new limits on the agency.
end quote from:
Report: NSA tracks social ties on Facebook
This is maybe the 1001th reason not to be on Facebook. You can understand why more and more law abiding citizens worldwide are trying to mask their identities online more with news like this.
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Our present government I don't believe is corrupt. But, what if we get one that has all this information about everyone? The same thing could happen to everyone (or any minority) that happened to the Jewish people in Germany and throughout Europe in the 1940s.
I have talked at length with people who WERE In those prison camps and watched personally hundreds of people die there. This kind of information is dangerous for ANYONE to have let alone any government.
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