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In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are

Posted on 7/5/14 at 8:30 pm
Posted by rmcc316
Here
Member since Feb 2004
44424 posts
Posted on 7/5/14 at 8:30 pm
Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post.

Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else.

LINK
Posted by DByrd2
Fredericksburg, VA
Member since Jun 2008
8964 posts
Posted on 7/5/14 at 8:45 pm to
I am SO surprised.
Posted by Oyster
North Shore
Member since Feb 2009
10224 posts
Posted on 7/5/14 at 8:55 pm to
Why would anyone be the least bit surprised by this.

I'd bet they do a word search to filter key words in every email, text message and phone call we send. Say or type a target word and your in their file.
Posted by Iosh
Bureau of Interstellar Immigration
Member since Dec 2012
18941 posts
Posted on 7/5/14 at 9:03 pm to
quote:

Many of them were Americans. Nearly half of the surveillance files, a strikingly high proportion, contained names, e-mail addresses or other details that the NSA marked as belonging to U.S. citizens or residents. NSA analysts masked, or “minimized,” more than 65,000 such references to protect Americans’ privacy, but The Post found nearly 900 additional e-mail addresses, unmasked in the files, that could be strongly linked to U.S. citizens or U.S.residents.

This is highly relevant because the minimization applied is analyst-specific. The "backdoor queries" that the FBI, CIA, etc. are allowed to do on the dragnet databases are unminimized. (We know this from the declassified Bates FISC decision as well as the declassified compliance reviews.)

Posted by LSUgusto
Member since May 2005
19226 posts
Posted on 7/5/14 at 9:38 pm to
quote:

Many other files, described as useless by the analysts but nonetheless retained, have a startlingly intimate, even voyeuristic quality. They tell stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes. The daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted are catalogued and recorded nevertheless.
Decatur...? You were wrong. Admit it.
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